Common Bonds, Hidden History
by vballangel06
Summary: AU x-over w/ Doctor Who, Torchwood, SG-1, SGA, Psych, and Eureka. The worlds of several key characters are turned upside down when they learn the truth about their heritage. Doctor/Master Ianto/Owen Jack/Nathan Janus/OFC
1. Prologue

A/N: I own nothing except Livinia, Helen, Caeli, and the idea. I've only seen New Who, so I'm sorry if this does not match with Old Who.  
Spoilers: Doctor Who- up to 3x13, Eureka- 3x01 (but she said no), Psych- up to 3x08, SGA- all of it, and Torchwood- up to but not including 2x06.

~Prologue~

Livinia, daughter of Theta and Koschei (more commonly known as the Doctor and Master), along with her lover Janus stood in front of a joint council of Timelords and Lanteans. Their crime was falling in love and acting upon it. The members of the council looked down on them with disappointment and in some cases outright disdain. While these looks made Janus stand, not in shame, but like a man walking to his execution, Livinia stood straighter, refusing to be cowed by them.

"Do you understand why you've been brought in front of this council?" the sternest Lantean on the council asked.

The question was meant to be rhetorical, Livinia and Janus had been told several times what they'd done wrong once their affair had been discovered, but Livinia couldn't resist answering, "No, I don't. Timelords and Lanteans can become friends, they can work together, fight together, and even die together but they can't love each other or become intimate with one another. And this is a restriction solely on Timelords; the rest of Gallifrey doesn't have these constraints. In fact, non-Timelord Gallifreyans are encouraged to marry Lanteans. I love Janus he loves me, why should you have any say in what we do?"

"It is not up to you to question that which you do not understand. You are still too young to fully comprehend the ramifications of your actions," the eldest Timelord told her. Livinia wanted to protest, but the Timelord held his hand up and continued, "As punishment Janus, you are banned from ever stepping foot on Gallifrey again and Livinia, you are forbidden from going to Atlantis or any other Lantean outpost in the Pegasus Galaxy for the rest of time; past, present, and future."

Once he had finished, he and the rest of the council stood up and left the chamber. Livinia saw her parents approach her in one direction and in another, a group of Lanteans heading for Janus. Knowing that this would be the last time she would see Janus, she threw herself into his arms. Janus held her tight, whispering over and over again "I love you." They had just started to kiss when she felt two hands gently grab her arms and pull her away from Janus.

Looking over her shoulder Livinia saw it was the Doctor who held her while the Master stood off to the side with a sad look on his face. She glanced back to Janus, only to see him being dragged in the opposite direction. Tears started streaming down her face as she began to plead, "Please, Daddy, Papa, don't let them do this. Please, I love him...." she kept sobbing and pleading, yet within minutes she was out of the council room and on her way back home.

A couple days passed. Livinia felt numb as the realization of what happened and what could never come to be hit her. Those days were spent in her room where she contemplated how her life had come to this, she was barely 100 and she felt like her life would never be whole again. She thought over her last moments with Janus and everything that the council said when she realized something, she wanted to understand what the eldest Timelord meant when he said that she hadn't understood the "ramifications of [her] actions."

With this thought in mind she sought out her fathers to explain it to her. She found them both in the study and immediately asked, "What are the consequences of Janus and me being together?" seeing the confused looks on their faces, she continued, "a council member said I didn't understand the 'ramifications' of my actions. What ramifications could my being with Janus have?"

The Doctor and Master shared a look, as if deciding who should answer her question. Sighing, the Doctor turned from his husband to his daughter, "It's a matter of genetics Livinia, the council fears what would happen if a Timelord and Lantean have a child together."

"Dad, I'm a temporal engineer, not a geneticist. In fact, I failed genetics."

"Not all Gallifreyans are Timelords; in fact children of Timelords aren't necessarily Timelords. We are able to feel the flow of time, among other things, but we don't consciously feel it until after we look into the Untempered Schism..."

"Right, so how would introducing Lantean genes affect all that?" Livinia interrupted.

This time it was the Master who answered, "Lanteans are attempting to evolve to a state of being where they wouldn't need their physical bodies. And in the process, they have managed to gain many different types of powers, they're individualized but the ability to say walk through walls or talk to animals is passed through DNA."

"What the council fears," the Doctor interjected, "is that a child of a Timelord and Lantean wouldn't need to look into the Untempered Schism to feel the passage of time. That everything that makes a Timelord a Timelord will be automatically activated because of the Lantean genes and that the child might still possess some other ability. That the child might be too powerful to control, with everything that it could do it wouldn't need to fear repercussions for breaking our laws."

Livinia took in everything she was told before answering, "That's ridiculous! You make it sound like any child born of a Timelord and Lantean would be a power-hungry dictator or something. Don't the morals that parents teach their children mean anything? Do both of you fear that?" When neither responded, Livinia threw her hands up in disgust and stormed out of the study.

For a week she avoided both her parents; still upset that they had sided with the council instead of her, their only daughter. Despite only seeing them in passing, Livinia heard them arguing almost constantly, arguing over her, the council, and some things that Livinia had no idea about. Their voices carried all throughout the house and she couldn't escape their fighting and begin by herself just brought feeling of loneliness and a great sense of loss.

She was sitting in her room when the idea came to her and without thought she leapt from her bed and snuck to her TARDIS. She was going to leave Gallifrey, leave the council and their rules, leave the memories of Janus behind. Livinia thought of traveling, but doing it alone would be just as bad as sitting alone in her room, so instead she settled on visiting Earth to stay only for a year maybe more.

She arrived in Manchester in 1951, a month later she found out she was pregnant. Nine months later as she held her daughter, Helen, Livinia realized she'd never be able to go home again and decided that no one (Timelord, Lantean, or otherwise) could find out about Helen. She made a ring for herself and a necklace for Helen that would disguise their alien traits and allow them to age like a human. Livinia was resigned to living out the rest of her life pretending to be human, if only to protect her daughter.


	2. Chapter 1

~1~

Manchester-2008

Livinia was in the sitting room when the doorbell rang, she looked up confused. No one she knew rang the doorbell, they all just walked into the house. She sighed getting up, hoping that it wasn't another Mormon asking her to convert to their word of God. As she approached the door, she felt a tingle in the back of her mind, the familiar sensation of a Timelord. This couldn't be happening; she had only recently stopped wearing her ring while in the house and now a Timelord had found her. It was with trepidation that she opened the door.

Standing on her doorstep were two nervous looking men. Though they looked different, she recognized them immediately. It was the Doctor and Master, her fathers. It had been fifty-seven years since she had last seen them, who knew how long it had been for them. "Hello," she said in a small voice.

"Livinia," it wasn't a question and in the next moment she was swept into the strong arms of her fathers.

It was nice to be held by them again, but she remembered the reason she ran away. Were they here to talk, to really talk? But what would happen when they found out about their grandchild and great-grandchildren? They couldn't handle her being with Janus, how could they handle this? Caeli was staying with her for the moment, it wasn't like she could hide the truth, that and she had never been able to lie to her parents. She pulled away from them, "Did you want to come inside and talk?"

"If that's what you want," the Doctor responded, he seemed unnaturally subdued. Behind him the Master nodded in reply.

Livinia led them to the sitting room before leaving them to get the tea that she had been preparing earlier. She made three cups of tea in a daze, her mind in the sitting room with her fathers. Coming back with tea she asked the question that had been plaguing her since she felt them, "How did you find me?"

"We never stopped looking for you Livinia. We knew you needed some time alone, but thought you'd come back to Gallifrey eventually. Though after the Time War, I thought you had been lost with the rest of the Timelords. Though not too long ago we felt another Timelord presence; the Master believed it was you, I didn't want to get my hopes up. To think you're alive only to discover someone else had survived. But we investigated and here we are." The Doctor said all this in a rush and into his teacup.

Livinia was confused, the Timelords were gone? When had that happened? It explained the almost emptiness she felt in her mind, though at the moment she was happy to let those thoughts go. The three of them had more important, family matters to discuss.

The Master stared at Livinia as if afraid she would disappear if he took his eyes off her. "Why didn't you ever come back home Livinia?" he asked her.

"I planned on coming back really. Just needed to get away for a while because both of you wouldn't listen to me about Janus, and he couldn't leave his people. I was only going to stay for a few months maybe a year, give everyone time to cool down. But things got complicated."

Before either could ask, one of the complications walked through the front door. "Gran, I'm back. I was thinking maybe you could come with me to visit Shawn and Nathan, get off this island for a little while. Owen is being all busy with his secret government job, so he probably won't be able to come and visit as much. And visiting Nathan is just so much fun; they have all these nifty toys, though you really shouldn't play with them because bad things can happen. Do you have an idea about dinner? I was thinking Italian, maybe make some spaghetti. Michael wants me to go to the club later tonight, would that be ok?" Caeli was a babbler, often speaking for minutes at a time without pausing for breath. During those minutes, topics came and went and questions were asked without waiting for an answer, though she expected one eventually.

Livinia looked to her fathers, seeing twin looks of confusion she sighed.

"Gran?" they asked in unison.

Before she could respond, perhaps try and salvage the situation, Caeli poked her head in, "Oh, I didn't know we had company. Are they staying for dinner?"

"Perhaps, I haven't asked them yet. Did you want to get started on it?"

"Sure, spaghetti good?" Caeli looked around the room, her grandmother's two guests sat looking shocked on sofa. Though at her glance they wiped the look off their faces and nodded their heads. "Cool, then dinner should be done in an hour or so. And Gran, think about coming with me please." When she saw Livinia agree, Caeli left the room, presumably heading to the kitchen.

Livinia held up a finger when she saw the Doctor about to open his mouth. When she heard music coming from the kitchen she gestured to him to ask whatever he wanted.

"I…uh…Gran? I thought you were heartbroken about Janus. Unless…Livinia…you weren't, you know, when you left?" The Doctor was almost speechless, something that rarely ever happened to him.

Livinia looked from one of her fathers to the other. The Doctor looked at her like he was begging her not to confirm what he knew to be true while the Master looked in the direction Caeli went.

"I found out a month after I left," her admission had the Master looking at her as well. She spoke slowly, thinking about how to explain while listening in case Caeli came back, "it's why I never came back. I didn't want to know what would happen to my daughter if the High Council found out about her."

"You didn't want to know what we would do either." It was the first thing the Master had really said since arriving.

"The two of you couldn't decide whether my relationship with Janus was a good thing or not. You spent weeks arguing and if I had told you about her, you would have done the same. Actually, it probably would have been worse."

"Probably," the Doctor agreed a look of embarrassment entering his face.


	3. Chapter 2

~2~

The TARDIS-Several days earlier

The Doctor and the Master were sitting in the Time Vortex after dropping Jack and Martha off at their respective homes. They were staring at each other, unsure how to approach the topic they both wanted to talk about.

"So, you're really just going to keep me?" the Master echoed his words from earlier on the Valiant. Though that time resulted in his wife shooting him in the side, inches away from anything vital.

"I figured we could talk or maybe start over. Try to get back what we had." The Doctor looked earnest as he said this, like he believed it could happen.

"Yeah right. Whatever we had was lost years ago. Or have our century long fights not been enough to convince you?" The Master got out of his seat and started pacing the control room, "Besides, what could we talk about? How about how much of a sanctimonious prat you are? Or how I would rather die than be stuck here with you?"

"Koschei…"the Doctor started, trying to soothe the Master.

"Don't you dare 'Koschei' me! I haven't been Koschei in centuries. Though I think I know what you want to talk about Theta. Livinia. You decided that following the high council instead of listening to our daughter was a good idea. She left and we never found her, no matter how far I looked. Then you destroyed Gallifrey and we have no idea what happened to her!" The Master was yelling by the end, wanting to get his point across.

Things had never been the same between them after Livinia left, their relationship fell apart and they separated. The Doctor eventually remarried, had another child and the Master was left alone not knowing whether he should mourn his child or not. "You whispered forgiveness to me, Doctor, as if you had the right and you don't." The Master spoke completely calm, his voice sounding, perhaps, saner than he had in years, "You want to forgive me to make yourself feel better and that won't happen until I forgive you and as long as I have no idea what happened to my daughter, that will never happen." With that the Master stormed out of the control room.

Days passed in the same manner: the Doctor trying to reason with the Master, the Master resisting and raging only to stalk out of whatever room they were in. The next day often started out the same or with the Master plain ignoring the Doctor. The constant fighting wore on them both. Even during the Year that Never Was they were able to be civil to each other, or as civil as one could be between jailer and prisoner, but now they were acting like they had in school, before they became friends, arguing for the sake of arguing and not listening to the other.

The Doctor was starting to get cabin fever. Staying in the TARDIS, in the Time Vortex, for too long was hard. Especially since his companion either avoided or yelled at him, so most of his time was spent making repairs to his beloved ship. That's where the Master found him. "Do you think we could not argue, Master? I'm tired and I think we're both better than that."

The Master was tired too, but he didn't want to come out and say so. Instead he nodded, "As long as you don't start on how we should go back to...the way we were..."

"Fine. Come help." They worked in companionable silence until they felt it, the feeling of another Timelord mind. "That's not possible," the Doctor breathed.

"Apparently it is. Need I remind you that you didn't know I survived and I was able to hide myself from you for eighteen months? Why couldn't someone else?"

"Let's go check it out, could be someone we know." The Doctor danced around the console, pulling levers and pushing buttons.

The Master contemplated, "You mean someone like Livinia?"

The Doctor froze, he'd be lying if he denied thinking it but it was something he couldn't let himself believe. "I don't know." He said into the console, " I'd like to think it could be, but the reality is she probably went back to Gallifrey sometime after we both left."

"You'd like that wouldn't you? If she was there when Gallifrey burned, your conscience would be free. You always said she would return, I was just the impatient one." The Master didn't truly believe what he said, but he knew it would hurt the Doctor, which was fine for him.

"Don't," the Doctor's voice took a sharp tone, "if she was there it would make my guilt that much more intense. I would have killed her. Her and the rest of the Timelords and I would never get my chance to apologize. To tell her how sorry I was, I am, for not helping and you know it. Now stop being an arse and come help with the coordinates."

Normally, the Master would've loved when the Doctor got all dominate, but at the moment, he just wanted to find this Timelord and put his hope to rest one way or the other.


	4. Chapter 3

~3~

Manchester-2008

Caeli left her grandmother and her grandmother's guests in the sitting room to start dinner. Something was going on, Gran looked guilty, the two men looked shocked at her appearance, and more worrying was the fact that Gran was allowing her to cook dinner unsupervised.

It wasn't that Caeli was a bad cook, just that she was easily distracted and liked to mix odd combinations of food. Like the time she decided that macaroni and cheese was too boring and added hot sauce, paprika, and cinnamon to it. After that, Caeli wasn't allowed to cook without someone in the kitchen with her.

The first thing she did when she reached the kitchen was turn on the radio. Caeli never could work in silence. She went around getting out what she needed for the spaghetti and tried not to think of something to give it more zest. Singing along to The Wombat's "Let's Dance to Joy Division," she put the water on to boil, set the oven for the garlic bread, and started on a salad. While heating up the tomato sauce, Caeli's will to not experiment faltered and she added more garlic and put some cumin into the sauce. She added some cranberries to the salad and then rushed to set the table.

Pouring some water into a pitcher, her mind once again went back to the two strangers talking with Gran. One of them reminded her of Harold Saxon but that was probably her overactive imagination running wild. They seemed to all know each other, but Gran didn't get out much and the men seemed like they were Nathan's or John's age.

"Dinner's ready," she called. Caeli went back to the kitchen to start bringing everything to the table.

"Let me help," a voice said from the doorway.

Turning around she saw Gran, "You don't have to. You should still be entertaining our guests."

"They can look after themselves for a few minutes. Give me the salad and bread. I'll take them in."

Caeli handed over the requested items, grabbed the spaghetti, and followed her Gran back to the dining room. Sitting down at the table she was introduced to Doctors John and Sam Smith.

Dinner was an awkward affair; Caeli, like her eldest brother Nathan, wasn't the best at interpreting social interactions yet she knew that there was tension in the room. Their two guests didn't seem to know what to say, Gran was staring suspiciously at her food, and Caeli did what she did best when she was nervous, babble. She talked about the club she was working at, how Owen seemed to have a new boyfriend, which was surprising since she never thought of Owen as being anything other than straight, Shawn actually staying in one place for the longest time since he graduated high school, and how John seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth; she would have continued till the end of dinner if Gran hadn't chosen to break into her one sided conversation.

"Caeli, what did you put in the spaghetti sauce?" It seemed like Gran finally figured out what was wrong with the food.

"What do you mean Gran? The sauce tastes fine to me." Caeli was a horrible liar, but didn't want to admit to adding anything unusual to dinner especially since the two doctors seemed to finally get interested in what was happening around them.

"Don't lie to me Caeli Amara Sheppard. You put something in this spaghetti sauce, something I'm sure was never supposed to be in spaghetti sauce."

Gran's voice was stern and Caeli winced at the use of her full name, "I might have added some garlic." At Gran's pointed look, she continued, "and a teaspoon or two of cumin."

The Doctor Smith who didn't look like Harold Saxon laughed. It was like a cloud had been lifted from the table as the other Doctor Smith smiled as well.

Gran just shook her head, "why did I let you make dinner alone and are those cranberries in the salad?"

"You were too busy having a serious conversation and yes," was the prompt reply.

Conversation became more casual, as Gran told the story about Caeli's macaroni and cheese mishap. Other stories of cooking disasters were shared. Though towards the end, Caeli's inquisitive mind got the better of her, "did you know that you look remarkably like Harold Saxon?"

"So I've been told," was the only reply she received.


	5. Chapter 4

~4~

Atlantis-2008

Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard was sitting in his office in Atlantis doing paperwork. He loved Atlantis, loved being with his team, going off world, and even being head of military on Atlantis, but he despised paperwork. He'd rather be running with Ronon or stick fighting with Teyla but Woolsey set a strict schedule about turning in paperwork that he would not deviate from. It was times like this that he really missed Elizabeth and Col. Carter.

An hour later, he had only one more mission report to write and then he could get some dinner. This one was hard to write, even though everything worked out in the end. It was hard to think, let alone write about how a couple days ago every one thought Rodney wouldn't live much longer. If Keller's emergency operation to remove the parasite in Rodney's brain, the one John made her perform, hadn't worked Rodney would have certainly died.

Feeling that sadness that came when he thought about lost friends and those he almost lost, John took a deep calming breath. Almost immediately, he felt Atlantis in his mind. From the first moment he stepped into the Ancient city, it was like another consciousness lived inside his head. It was almost like having a mother's voice constantly there, telling him to sleep, eat, how certain things worked, and occasionally, making things work better. John had often wondered whether or not Atlantis communicated like this to the others with the ATA gene. He knew that many, even those with the gene therapy, were able to feel Atlantis to a certain extent, mostly as a gentle hum in times of crisis. But no one else has ever mentioned Atlantis actually talking to them.

It was something to think about on another date, probably after his team's forced vacation. Woolsey, leaders of the SGC, Homeworld Security, and the IOA decided that Sheppard's team had been through a lot lately and it was time for them to take their first real vacation, for any of them, in the four almost five years they'd been on Atlantis.

Rodney was currently on Earth with Jeannie. He had been there for a week already, recovering from his ordeal and would be there for another two weeks. In a couple of days, Teyla and Ronon were going to go spend three weeks with the Athosians. A week after they left, John would go back to Earth and he wasn't very happy about it. It's not that he didn't want to go back home, maybe see his brothers and sister, but the longer he stayed on Atlantis, the harder it was to leave.

He emailed his reports to Woolsey and walked to the cafeteria, still thinking about his forced vacation. John found Teyla and Ronon eating dinner and joined them. "Hey guys, excited about your upcoming leave?"

Teyla smiled, "Very. It will be good to spend some time with my people." Ronon grunted in agreement. Teyla continued, "What will you be doing with your vacation, John?"

"Not sure yet. I might visit my brothers and sister, maybe my grandmother."

"I didn't know you had more than one brother," was Ronon's gruff reply.

"Dave is my brother on my dad's side. I'm related to the others through my mom." Seeing their confused looks, John added, "Dave and I have the same dad. Nathan, Shawn, Owen, Caeli and I have the same mom."

"Sounds complicated," Ronon said.

"Yeah, it is a little. Dave's mom died when he was little, and my mom couldn't stay in one place for long. In the span of eighteen years she had five children with four different guys and married my dad twice before she up and disappeared completely." John's voice was a little bitter at the end. He had never forgiven her for abandoning him and the others, especially Caeli who could barely remembered her.

Nine days later, John stood in the control room. Woolsey told him to enjoy his vacation but to keep his phone on in case of an emergency. After nodding to Woolsey and the people in the gate room, John left Atlantis sending a mental goodbye to the city.


	6. Chapter 5

~5~

Manchester-2008

Never one to sleep in late, Caeli went down to breakfast early Saturday morning. Upon entering the kitchen she found Sam there making some scrambled eggs. For the past couple days the two Doctors, who insisted she call them John and Sam, had been staying with her and her Gran. It seemed like Gran knew them a long time ago but had some kind of falling out. The three often spent hours in the sitting room talking, sometimes yelling, and none would tell her what it was about.

"G'morning," Sam greeted her.

"Morning. Can I ask you a question?" she asked as she poured a bowl of cereal.

"You just did," was the reply.

Glaring at Sam's smirk and fighting to not put her hands on her hips in a very Gran type gesture, she said, "Don't be cheeky. I know none of you are going to tell me what you guys talk about, I was just curious what you and John got your doctorates in. It's kinda obvious that your not medical doctors."

Smirk still in place, Sam answered, "We could be. Both of us have medical training. But basically we have ones in math, science, and some history."

Caeli dropped her spoon, splattering some milk on the counter. "Wow, that's really impressive. Nathan has two, math and physics, I think. I got mine in engineering, though I'm thinking of getting another in chemical engineering. Add on to what I already have."

This time Sam dropped his spatula, "You have a doctorate at eighteen?!"

"I'm not eighteen! I turned twenty-one a week ago. I'm just a little small for my age," this time the hands came to her hips. It really wasn't her fault she was short. According to Gran, her mom wasn't much taller.

"I didn't mean that you're short, you just look younger than you actually are. Which isn't surprising considering." The last part was whispered but Caeli still heard him.

"Considering what?"

He was saved from answering by the doorbell ringing. "I'm going to go get that." He muttered and quickly left the kitchen.

Caeli wanted to follow but knew that asking anymore questions would be met with a wall of silence, though she was pretty sure that she was slowly breaking that wall down. She was still eating her cereal when she heard Gran say, "John, why on Earth did you ring the doorbell?"

Caeli didn't hear his response as she jumped off her chair and rushed to the door. John was standing in the doorway; duffel bag in one hand, his other was wrapped around Gran in a one armed hug. Nearby were John and Sam Smith, looking at the scene with confusion and an odd sort of longing. On the floor near Gran's feet was an exotic looking plant, obviously the reason John rang the doorbell. He often brought presents for Gran whenever he came to visit and the presents were often from the places where he was stationed at the time.

As soon as Gran let go Caeli gave a happy shriek, ran down the hall and jumped into John's open arms. He spun her around in a couple of circles, "Hey kiddo."

"C'mon, we'll go put your stuff upstairs and we can go get breakfast and hang out. How long are you staying? I was planning on going to Cardiff today, do you want to come?" Caeli asked once John put her back on the ground.

"Ahhh…sure," John said as he put her on the ground. Caeli grabbed John's hand and dragged him upstairs. "Caeli, who are…"

"We'll talk over breakfast, lets go."

After dropping John's stuff off in one of the upstairs guestrooms, they went to the diner for breakfast, where they've been regulars for as long as Gran has lived in Manchester.

"So, can I ask about the guys at Gran's?" John asked after they ordered.

"They're old friends of Gran's. Don't ask me how they met, none of them will tell me anything and believe me I've tried. They've been here about three days. Gran seemed shocked to see them; I think they might have had a falling out in the past and haven't seen each other in years and are trying to reconnect or something. The three of them have locked themselves in the sitting room every morning and only come out for bathroom breaks and meals. It's almost like they're working on a treaty or something."

"Caeli, what are their names?" John asked to stop the babbling, that while interesting didn't hold any pertinent information.

"Oh, I thought I mentioned. They're Doctors John and Sam Smith, they're partners, I think, you know in a Civil Union. So anyway, how long are you here?"

"I'm on a three week leave, barring any emergency, so I might stay here a couple days and then go visit everyone else."

"Did you want to see Owen today? I was going anyway since I'm leaving in a couple of days; he knows I'm coming and you there will be a pleasant surprise. Ooh, if you're visiting Shawn and Nathan, can I come with since I'm heading that way anyway? We can be traveling buddies."

"Yes, to all of the above. And is it me or did your babbling get worse since I've last seen you?"

Breakfast arrived before Caeli answered, "Maybe. I hadn't really noticed."


	7. Chapter 6

~6~

Manchester-2008

The house was conspicuously quiet after Caeli and John left for the day. Livinia was busy cleaning the dishes, the Master was reading Caeli's dissertation with one of Nathan's sitting on the table in the sitting room, and the Doctor was puttering around in the TARDIS which was brought in the day earlier. As soon as Livinia finished the last dish, she joined the Master in the sitting room. Not even three minutes later the Doctor joined them.

This had been the routine the few days the two were there. They were talking about the past, what had happened to each of them over the years. Livinia had been sad to find out that after she left, her parents' marriage fell apart. She could tell that they still loved each other, but when she left it seemed like they each blamed the other for what had happened. When they told her that they had each regenerated several times, it put into perspective the amount of time that had passed for them since she left Gallifrey.

They discussed her grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and whether or not to tell them about their heritage. Both the Doctor and Master wanted to tell them the truth, maintained that they should know about where they came from. They also said that since they found their daughter and now knew about their great-grandchildren, there was no way they would be able to stay out of their lives. Livinia felt that they had lived as normal humans for their entire lives; it wouldn't be fair to thrust this on them. She pointed out that three of the five of them had jobs within the American or British governments, and once Caeli figured out what she wants out of life, she might work with one of her brothers as well.

It was an ongoing debate and the arrival of John hadn't made it any easier. The Doctor and Master had met two great-grandchildren now, even though they only briefly met John, and today they were more adamant than ever about telling them all the truth.

"Livinia, you said that you made necklaces for the children when they were born, right?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, yes, but I don't see what that has to do with…"

"What happens if they come off?" the Master interrupted, "You said it yourself, three of them work for the government, if the necklaces fall off somehow, won't someone notice that their employee now has two hearts instead of one?"

"Wouldn't it be better if they knew beforehand, so they can make precautions in case something like that happens?" the Doctor continued

Livinia sighed, she hated when they double teamed her, and she hated it more when they were right. "Fine, but I want to tell them all at once. Caeli is planning to leave in a few days to visit her brothers and John will probably go with her. I'm almost positive that when he brings her back the others are going to come with them, its been a long time since we've had a family get together. That gives me a couple weeks to plan how to break the news."

Her two fathers nodded their consent to the plan, and the atmosphere in the house was a lot more relaxed then it had been.


	8. Chapter 7

~7~

Cardiff-2008

Owen Harper was not having a good day. He had been in the middle of an alien autopsy for the past four hours, and was maybe two thirds of the way done. His sister was coming to have lunch with him in a little less than an hour and he still had no idea whether or not it would be a good idea to introduce her to Ianto. He and Ianto had started dating about a month after Jack left and three months later, Owen felt like he had when he was with Katie, and that scared him. Especially since he knew Ianto still has feelings for Jack and given the opportunity, Owen thought Ianto would choose Jack over him in a heartbeat.

So, introduce Ianto to Caeli, when Ianto didn't even know he had siblings and when Owen wasn't sure if they would last, or ignore Caeli's questions about his love life? Not a hard decision to make really. Caeli asks a lot of questions and hardly expects or waits for an answer. Glancing down at his watch he muttered, "Great still have half an hour to wait." Luckily, Owen had decided for Caeli to meet him on the Plass so he didn't have to pick her up from the train station.

About ten minutes later, Owen decided that the autopsy could be finished when he got back from lunch and left the autopsy bay, taking off his gloves as he went.

"You're done?" a voice asked suspiciously from behind him.

Owen turned around to see Jack and had to suppress a shiver. For some unknown reason, being around Jack always made Owen feel uncomfortable, he noticed it from the moment he met Jack outside Katie's operating room. The feelings of something being wrong with Jack had faded over the four years working at Torchwood. But when Jack disappeared and then reappeared, the feeling returned.

"No, but I'm about to go to lunch, figured it could wait an hour," was Owen's response.

"Ianto just ordered us lunch, you're not staying?"

"Can't, I'm meeting someone soon," was his reply, absent mindedly checking his watch. Fifteen minutes left, he walked to his desk, leaving Jack behind. Owen figured he could get some reports done while waiting, maybe finish one on time.

Jack followed Owen, "Someone important?"

Owen swiveled in his chair and glared up at Jack, "I don't see how it's any of your business who I'm having lunch with."

Jack sighed, "I hurt Ianto when I left, lost whatever we might have had together. I've recognized that and moved on but I won't stand by and watch him be used."

"I'm not using Ianto, Jack; I like him, a lot. Not that it's any of your business, but yes, the person I'm having lunch with is someone important. Just not in the way you think."

Owen left the hub, not wanting to be in Jack's presence anymore but still had time to spare. He went to the Tourist Center to talk to Ianto. On the way up he'd quickly decided to tell Ianto about Caeli. Jack admitting that he and Ianto were over was the push Owen needed.

"Hey," Owen greeted. Ianto looked up from his work and smiled as Owen entered, "You got a minute?"

"Of course, what's up?"

"I'm meeting someone for lunch in a few minutes. She'll probably want to meet you after if that's ok. God, I don't know what I'm doing, this could be a very bad idea, I mean…"

Ianto shut Owen up with a quick kiss, "You're babbling. Now exactly who are you meeting for lunch and why would she want to meet me?"

"Oh, I was, wasn't I?" seeing Ianto nod Owen continued, "Don't normally babble, that's more Caeli, the girl I'm meeting. She's my younger sister, which is why she wants to meet you."

Ianto looked shocked, "Sister? I didn't know you had a sister, younger or otherwise."

"Well," Owen scratched the back of his head, "I only have one sister but I do have three older half-brothers. But I have to go meet Caeli for lunch, be back in an hour."

Owen left a surprised Ianto, which was often something hard to accomplish, only to be surprised himself when he found not only Caeli but John as well standing in the Plass waiting.


	9. Chapter 8

~8~

Eureka-2008

Nathan Stark was confused, which was not something he admitted often. For the past week, starting a day or two after Allie rejected his proposal, Carter had been by his lab. He would check up on him, talk to him about mundane things, off to grab lunch with him or bring him coffee. Nathan could acknowledge, if only to himself, that he found the Sheriff of Eureka quite attractive but he knew it was only one sided. Carter was doing these things because he was nice and he didn't want Nathan dwelling on Allison.

Shaking his head to get rid of these thoughts, his eyes found the clock. "Great, it's almost eight in the morning and I'm still not done going over these readings," he muttered.

Nathan had been awake for a little over a day now, working on an experiment. He spent this past night going over the data collected the previous day. It was time consuming and having his thoughts wander to Carter every few minutes was not helpful. If he wanted to finish soon and work on some of his other experiments, he needed to focus.

Looking over the readings, his eyes spotted the problem before his mind could understand what the reaction might be. He was out of his chair in a second, running down the near empty halls of Global Dynamics, hoping to reach the experiment before it went critical. He forwent the elevator as it would only slow him down, absentmindedly calling the Sheriff's Office and quickly explaining the situation.

He had barely finished his conversation with Deputy Lupo when he reached the lab. A moment later the experiment went critical and exploded. The shockwave shattered windows, sending glass and debris everywhere, and threw Nathan into the adjacent lab. His back crashed hard into the wall and he slid to the floor.

He barely noticed when the chain on his necklace, the one his mom gave him and his grandmother made, broke and fell to the floor. He was, however, painfully aware of the sudden fact that he could feel the Earth spinning at about 1040 miles per hour given his current position on the planet. Nathan had always been aware of the fact before, but now he could feel the rotation of the Earth. He could feel the passage of time, feel what was, what is, what could be, and what could never be.

Nathan sat lost and injured in the lab, unable to move, unable to think beyond these newfound abilities. When he finally heard the shouts of "Nathan!" and "Dr. Stark!" he knew it had been exactly 15 minutes and 37 seconds since the experiment went critical.

As the voices grew louder he became aware of the fact that he wasn't hearing the worry or the urgency or the undercurrent of love in their voices, but was feeling it. He felt it as if these emotions were his own. This wasn't something entirely new to Nathan, he had often known when his younger brothers or sister were hurt or just needed a shoulder to lean on. His grandmother said it was because he could be very sensitive when he wanted. But he had never felt emotions from the citizens of Eureka; hell, he had hardly known what Allison was feeling on a good day.

He could barely hear the approaching footsteps as his mind was occupied by the onslaught of emotions that weren't his own. Nathan closed his eyes; fighting off the panic attack he could feel starting. He felt the person kneeling by him, somehow sensed it was Carter before the other man had spoken a word. When Carter put a hand on Nathan's shoulder, his eyes shot open in pain and he couldn't suppress the whimper that escaped.

"Nathan?" Carter was kneeling in front of him, eyes searching; Lupo, Allison and Fargo were in the background, looks of worry on all their faces. But Nathan wasn't focused on any of them. "Nathan, I need you tell me where you're hurt."

He tried to answer, tried to come up with a coherent thought while being pressed by the emotions of those around him. He opened his mouth only for a pain filled moan to come forth. It finally became to much, his eyes rolled, he took another deep breath and he knew no more.


	10. Chapter 9

~9~

Santa Barbara-2008

Seven in the morning was a ghastly hour as far as Shawn Spencer was concerned. He and Gus had the day off and Gus wanted to spend it catching up on paperwork for Psych. So when Gus decided to deposit a check at the bank, Shawn decided to stay in the car and catch up on sleep. But when Gus didn't return he started to get worried. Something was wrong but he just couldn't pinpoint what. When he saw Juliet and Lassiter show up, his uneasiness increased.

"Lassi, Jules, what are you doing here?" he asked as the two officers exited Lassiter's red Crown Vic.

"What are you doing here?" Lassiter asked.

At the same time Juliet told him, "Shawn we have a situation. Some guy held up the bank and we think he's taken hostages."

Shawn didn't stop to think as he tried to leap over the car, his mind only focused on Gus trapped in that bank. He barely felt Lassiter pull him back, only vaguely hearing the detective telling him to take it easy. "Gus is in there," Shawn told them, voice flat.

The next few moments were spent defending himself to Jules who thought it odd that Shawn didn't 'see' the bank robbery. He was jittery walking over to Lassiter and the Chief, neither were doing anything to resolve the problem. It made Shawn mad, didn't they realize Gus was inside with a maniac who had a gun.

When Commander Luntz arrived, Shawn had no doubt that this hostage situation just took a turn for the worse. Luntz seemed very arrogant to Shawn, and even though he correctly pegged Shawn as being nervous because the situation was personal, Shawn didn't trust the guy. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Luntz and Juliet were dating.

His luck turned when Luntz had him deliver the pizzas to the hostage taker. Shawn used the opportunity to get inside the bank. "Eight pies, four of them are vegetable. No pepperoni? Really? Plus the blatant disregard and utter criminal lack of ham and pineapple. What kind of second rate negotiation is this? This is a hostage situation," he yelled back to the officers. '_Right, step one: get inside bank, check_,' Shawn thought to himself as he was dragged into the bank. He noticed, as he was pulled further in that Phil, the robber, had left the safety of the gun on.

He was happy to see that Gus was all right, even happier when they were able to talk, though Shawn wasn't really sure what Gus meant by "hostage time" being different than time outside the bank. While getting the story of what went down in the bank from Gus and the bank manager, Shawn noticed holes in the manager's story which made him seem fishy. Remembering what he saw on the security camera while with Juliet, Shawn quickly came to the conclusion that the bank manager was in on the robbery.

The action that solidified Shawn's assumption on Phil not being a true bank robber was him allowing Shawn to go to the bathroom. Most bank robbers were heartless and uncaring of their hostages' needs. Shawn had them stop in the bank manager's office to talk, and learning about Phil's kidnapped wife was sad. Though now Shawn not only had to get Phil out of this mess but he also had to find the wife.

Once in the bathroom, Shawn hadn't lied about that Orange Julius, he tried to call Luntz with the information he found figuring as the negotiator, Luntz should know but he was immediately shot down. So he called Lassiter, "Los Lasos, I have an idea that might put you back in the center of this case."

"I'm listening."

"Stubbins isn't behind the robbery, someone kidnapped his wife and put him up to it."

"Spencer you know that sounds a little nutsy right?"

"What do you have to lose? Just send a couple black and whites to find the wife. And when you find that she's not at her house or work, I think you'll find she's being held at 340 Laporte Street," Shawn told Lassiter, remembering a list of foreclosed properties he saw in the office.

"How can you be so sure…" Shawn didn't wait for Lassiter to finish, he flushed the toilet and hung up.

Lassiter has the information that should safely put an end to the situation, but it would take time. Shawn stalled by making a list of demands for Phil to read to Luntz and drilled Juliet more on why she wanted Luntz. After Phil read the demands, which included Shawn's idea for a snack line, Shawn went back to sit with Gus and quietly fill him in on what Shawn found out.

Twenty minutes later, Shawn snuck over to Phil who was talking with the cops by the window. Apparently they were going to meet all of Phil's demands including the snack line and needed Phil to look at the bus, which unfortunately wasn't in the color he'd asked for. Looking outside, Shawn saw Lassiter's car turn onto the block, he was back from his search, hopefully with good news. The short time his gaze was elsewhere was enough time to miss the red laser of a sniper gun on Phil's side. He was a couple seconds too slow getting him down and instead of the sniper shooting Phil, Shawn was shot in the left side of his chest. He and Phil went down hard and as Phil tried to get Shawn off of him, he accidently broke the chain of Shawn's necklace.


	11. Chapter 10

~10~

Manchester-2008

Once the decision to tell the children the truth had been reached, the Doctor and Master wanted to know everything about them. Livinia was only too happy to oblige. She told them stories of their childhood, how Nathan and Owen would spend most of their time reading and then discussing what the other read, while John, Shawn and Caeli would try to get them to have fun. She elaborated on the story of Caeli and her cooking experiments, adding that Shawn was also banned from cooking because he always tried to add pineapple to everything, and how the two of them in the kitchen together often turned into the messiest monstrosities known to man.

"Why do only two of them have doctorates?" asked the Master when they paused for lunch.

"Owen is a medical doctor, a brilliant doctor if I say so myself. John and Shawn have the potential, but John joined the military and is doing pretty well for himself while Shawn has never had the patience for school. Don't get me wrong, they're both as smart as the others, John is a member of MENSA, but Shawn is a free spirit, would rather be exploring the world and having fun than reading dusty books," was Livinia's response.

After lunch, Livinia told more stories, though not the lighthearted stories like before. She told them how Nathan's marriage fell apart when he became too focused on work. How John almost ruined his career to go back for two of his men trapped behind enemy lines. How Shawn left without a word after his high school graduation because of his troubles with his father. How Owen lost his fiancé, Katie, to what seemed like the earliest known case of Alzheimer's. Finally, she told them how shortly before Caeli finished her bachelor's degree, she suffered from a mental breakdown which resulted in Patrick sending her to a psychiatric institution for three months.

This last story shocked them both, "You could never tell by looking at her," the Doctor commented.

"I know, I think that's when her babbling became worse. She always babbled as a child, but normally only when she was nervous or excited. Now, it seems like almost every conversation she has she babbles, and its getting worse." Livinia said with a small frown on her face.

The Master thought aloud, "You don't think she took off her necklace do you?" Seeing their confused gazes, he continued, "I mean it makes sense, she took off the necklace for a second and everything that we take for granted as Timelords enters her mind along with whatever she inherited from her grandfather's people. It would be enough for anyone to suffer a mental breakdown." As the Master spoke, his fingers beat out the ever present four beat tune that plagued his mind.

Livinia and the Doctor sat and contemplated the meaning of the Master's words. Not even a minute later, the three of them felt it: the emergence of two Timelord minds, one right after another, each in varying stages of pain.


	12. Chapter 11

~11~

Cardiff-2008

Caeli was enjoying lunch with her brothers. She loved the look of surprise on Owen's face when he saw John standing with her. Like she did with John, Caeli ran to Owen only to be swept up in a hug. They went to a café around the corner, sat and told each other about the recent happenings in their lives. Well Caeli did, Owen and John could only tell the non-classified aspects of their lives. Caeli grilled Owen on his new boyfriend, how they met, what he's like, and basically every personal thing Owen knew about Ianto.

When Owen mentioned that he'd like for them to meet Ianto, Caeli was shocked. "Are you serious? I mean, we didn't meet Katie until after you already proposed."

"Yes, I'm serious. I really think this could lead to something more."

Caeli squealed in delight and wrapped her arms around Owen's neck. John smiled, "I'm happy for you little brother."

"Thanks," Owen replied, a slight blush staining his cheeks.

Their meals had arrived before Caeli remembered, "Gran let me cook dinner a couple nights ago."

"So? She always lets you cook, out of the five of us you are the best cook." Owen replied.

John thought about it, "Well, Nathan is almost as good a cook. But I think Caeli meant Gran let her cook on her own."

Seeing Caeli nod, Owen looked aghast, "Why? I thought after the macaroni and cheese incident you were never to be in the kitchen alone."

"She was distracted, it was the night John and Sam came. I made spaghetti."

John who was eating spaghetti asked, "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not. But it wasn't that bad, honest."

Before Caeli could inform them of what she added to the spaghetti sauce, a couple walked past their table. As the man saw Owen, he muttered, "Bloody Torchwood."

Caeli watched as the couple continued to walk to their table. '_What was Torchwood'_, she wondered. Turning back to her meal and about to continue the story of her latest cooking blunder, she saw her brothers had gone kind of pale. "What's Torchwood?" she asked, echoing her thought.

"It's nothing," they told her simultaneously. When they realized the other had spoken they turned and looked at each other. "How do you know about Torchwood?"

Caeli sighed as she realized they were encroaching on secret government job territory. "I'm getting really tired of secrets," she mumbled starting to get angry, for the past three days she had lived with three people who wouldn't tell her anything and now this.

John and Owen stared at each other from across the table, waiting for one of them to break and say how they knew about Torchwood. Caeli watched them, getting more annoyed with each passing second and unconsciously beating out the four beat rhythm she'd heard Sam drum every now and then.

Owen broke first, "I work for Torchwood," he whispered, not wanting to be overheard by anyone else.

John, in an equally low voice, said, "I work for the SGC."

"Great, you both work for secret government jobs. Though apparently Torchwood isn't as secret as you'd like it to be if random people know about it. But that still doesn't explain what it is," Caeli interjected.

John and Owen both turned to Caeli like they had forgotten she was there. "Maybe we could continue this back at my work," Owen suggested.

They all agreed, and walked back across the Plass and to the Tourist Center that Owen had left barely forty-five minutes prior. Ianto was still there, arranging pamphlets and helping an elderly couple find a good bed and breakfast. Once they left, Ianto smiled, "Owen, have a good lunch?"

"No, not really. But, um, Ianto, this is one of my older brothers, Col. John Sheppard and my sister, Dr. Caeli Harper. John, Caeli, my boyfriend Ianto."

As Caeli and Ianto shook hands, she told him, "Nice to meet you. And Harper may be the name on my birth certificate but Mum legally changed it to Sheppard when she remarried John's dad. Though at the moment, I think I might be happier changing it to either Spencer or Stark. Either one will work because at least Shawn and Nathan don't keep major secrets from their family."

Ianto looked to Owen for some type of explanation. Owen sighed, but obliged, "Some arse at lunch mentioned Torchwood, Caeli heard and wanted to know about it. John and I both told her not to worry about it. Found out John works for the SGC, and now Caeli's mad at the both of us."


	13. Chapter 12

~12~

Manchester-2008

Livinia was beside herself with panic. It had been almost two hours since the three of them felt Nathan and Shawn in their minds. They were both hurt, unconscious, and had lost their necklaces. That meant their alien natures had come to the forefront of their minds. Livinia was trying to send them comforting thoughts, but it was hard when she was so worried about their welfare.

"Livinia, calm down," the Doctor advised her when she began pacing the room.

"I can't. Two of my grandsons are hurt and are going through extreme and difficult mental changes. You'd be doing the same if it were me."

Knowing she was right, the Doctor continued on a different train of thought, "Why don't we just pop over to the States and see them?"

"Right, like that would work. Caeli and John are supposed to be back by dinner, can't exactly leave a note saying 'Went to the Sates because your brothers were in accidents. Be back soon.' And how are we going to explain how we know they're hurt before anyone calls to inform us?" sarcasm dripped from Livinia's voice, reminding both the Doctor and Master that she was their daughter. "And why hasn't anyone called to inform us?"

Livinia paced the room a couple more times before deciding that she had to do something, anything, to distract her from the knowledge that two of her grandchildren were hurt and in pain. She looked at her fathers and saw the Doctor watching her, sadness on his face as he knew there wasn't anything that he could do at the moment; the Master was gazing into space, his fingers drumming that constant rhythm, though she knew he was trying to mentally help his great-grandchildren.

She looked around the room and decided there wasn't anything to clean, which was her usual stress relief. Two more circuits of the room and the solution came to her: dinner. If she started on dinner now, her mind would be focused on the preparation, thoughts wouldn't wander, and she wouldn't have to think of something to tell Caeli and John when they got back.

"I'm making dinner," she announced to the room seconds later.

"Do you want help?" the Doctor asked.

"No Dad, but you could help Papa," she left before she realized what she called them, her mind going back to her younger years.

The Doctor watched her leave the room, tears shining in his eyes, before he sat next to the Master and connected his mind with two of his great-grandchildren.

Two hours later, the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Livinia shouted from the kitchen.

"Hello?...Gus, what happened to Shawn?...You only call when something's happened to either Shawn or Caeli and as Caeli is currently in Cardiff visiting Owen, something had to have happened to Shawn…HE WAS WHAT?... How?!...A coma?...Ok, Gus you're not making any sense…Calm down. I'm going to call Caeli and we'll be on the next available flight...I don't care what Henry says…Look Gus, you tell Henry Spencer that Shawn is my grandson. He's hurt, and I will be there for him and nothing anyone says will keep me away…Good, I'll see you as soon as possible, you can explain in detail how Shawn got shot by a sniper when I arrive…And Gus, thanks for letting me know…See you soon."


	14. Chapter 13

~13~

Santa Barbara-2008

Gus's day wasn't turning out so well. Sure, being taken hostage would put a damper on anyone's day but seeing you're best-friend get shot by the good guys tends to ruin it. Gus would never forget watching Shawn push Stubbins out of the sniper's aim and getting hit instead or the moan of agony Shawn made as Stubbins moved off him.

Gus, not caring about the other hostages or that he might be in danger, ran over to Shawn and put pressure on his wound. Shawn was barely conscious and didn't respond when Gus said his name. Lassiter, Juliet, Luntz, and several other officers stormed into the bank seconds later.

"Call an ambulance," Gus yelled at them. Lassiter and Juliet ran to Gus while Luntz called an ambulance and the rest of the officers took Phil and the bank manager, on Gus' insistence, to the police station for questioning.

Minutes later, EMTs sprinted to Shawn and put him on a gurney to take him to the hospital. Lassiter told them they'd follow behind and pulled Gus, who was in shock, towards his car.

"Someone needs to call Mr. Spencer," Gus said quietly from the back seat. Juliet made the call.

They arrived at the hospital ten minutes later and were told to wait in the waiting room. Gus and Juliet sat in the chairs while Lassiter paced. Fifteen minutes later Mr. Spencer arrived, "Gus, what the hell happened to Shawn?" his voice was eerily calm though his eyes conveyed restrained worry.

Gus shakily explained to him what happened barely two hours prior, starting with him getting taken hostage and ending with Shawn getting shot, and it took almost another two more hours before the doctor came to tell them anything.

"What's wrong with my son?" Henry demanded.

"The bullet, surprisingly, caused very little damage. Shawn lost a good deal of blood prior to being brought in which resulted in his loss of consciousness. He's currently resting comfortably in a private room, though he hasn't regained consciousness," the doctor explained.

"So why haven't we been able to see him?" Gus interjected.

"Because for some reason Shawn has appeared to have grown a second heart and he seems to be experiencing an increase in brain activity."

"WHAT?!" was the shocked response of Gus, Juliet, and Lassiter, while Henry asked in his calm voice, "Excuse me?"

"I can't give any explanations, neither the extra heart nor the increased brain activity seems to be causing Shawn any visible problems, he's simply unconscious. However, at times it appears that he is more asleep than unconscious, he moves around, mutters, there's rapid eye movement. I want to run more tests, but am afraid to do them while he's unconscious."

"Can we see him, doctor?" Juliet asked.

"I don't see why not. Maybe being with family and friends is the push he needs to wake up." The doctor then led them to Shawn's room. When he took his leave, he announced that a nurse would stop in regularly to monitor Shawn's condition and that he would be by every hour or so.

Gus understood what the doctor meant by Shawn not appearing to be unconscious but merely sleeping, Shawn was moving his head back and forth, speaking gibberish.

"Do you think this is because of his gift?" Juliet wondered aloud.

Mr. Spencer snorted, before muttering, "I highly doubt it."

They lapsed into silence once more, which was broken only when Lassiter announced he had to get back to the station and for Juliet to give him updates.

When Gus spoke, five minutes later, it was to announce, "I'm calling Caeli and Mrs. Smith."

Mr. Spencer sharply turned his head, "Why?"

"Because they're family and they deserve to know. Besides, Shawn said Caeli was supposed to visit sometime next week."

"Gus if you call them, they're only going to come."

"So? You heard the doctor, Shawn needs family and whether or not you think so, they are family." Gus left the room after his declaration, Juliet followed.

"Who are Caeli and Mrs. Smith, Gus?"

"Mrs. Smith is Shawn's grandmother, Caeli is his younger sister." His back was to Juliet, looking in his pockets for his cell, so he didn't see the look of shock on her face before she reentered Shawn's room.

After getting off the phone with Shawn's grandmother, Gus walked back into the room Mrs. Smith was going to be in Santa Barbara sometime tomorrow; there was no doubt about it. Despite living in Britain, she came to every important event in her grandchildren's lives and like she said, there was no way she would stay away after finding out Shawn was hurt.


	15. Chapter 14

~14~

Cardiff-2008

Caeli wasn't too surprised to learn that aliens existed because after spending several months in Eureka, where scientists achieved the impossible everyday, nothing really surprised her anymore. To top it all off, this meant she won the bet Vincent had on whether there were secret government agencies devoted to alien life. Although, finding out one brother was an alien hunter on Earth and another spent most of his time living and exploring another galaxy was somewhat alarming.

She was currently entranced in the hub, especially the pterodactyl that was flying around. John was currently talking with Jack, the leader of Torchwood 3, apparently there're four Torchwoods all over the UK, while Owen was busy finishing the alien autopsy left over from the morning.

This allowed Caeli to get to know Owen's other colleagues. She decided early on that she really liked Ianto, that he was just what Owen needed and was a better match than Katie ever was. Toshiko, or Tosh as she insisted on being called, was a computer genius and Caeli instantly began a conversation with her about networking. Gwen Cooper on the other hand, didn't seem to be a good person in Caeli's books. She was apparently engaged but spent most of her time flirting with her boss, very bad form, and Caeli really didn't understand what Gwen's job in Torchwood actually was. After introductions were made and pleasantries exchanged, it seemed the two came to an unspoken agreement to ignore each other as much as possible.

With her brothers being busy, and Tosh wanting to get back to work, Caeli asked Ianto if he would mind giving her a tour. "I promise I won't sell the layout to your secret lair," she told him when he hesitated.

"All right, though I doubt anyone would believe you if you did."

As Ianto was showing her around, Caeli took the opportunity to ask questions about him and Owen.

"So…how long have you and Owen been going out?" she asked.

"Ahhh, the real reason for getting me alone," was the sardonic reply.

"Just curious. Owen likes you a lot, proven by the fact that we got introduced; he wouldn't have done it if he thought the two of you weren't serious. And it's my duty to tell you that if you hurt him, my brothers and I will hurt you back."

"Duly noted, and to answer your question about eight months. How long ago did he tell you we were going out?"

"We exchanging information? A question for a question?" she wondered, smiling when Ianto nodded, "he told me less than a month ago. Which is pretty good considering he didn't tell us about Katie until after he decided he wanted to marry her. Are the two of you serious?"

Ianto thought about it for a moment, "I think we are, I'd like us to be. So Owen really has three older brothers?"

Caeli laughed out loud, "Yup. Nathan, John, and Shawn. They can all be tricksters, though Shawn is by far the worse. I think he is the incarnation of Loki. With Nathan's scientific mind, which never lacks imagination, and John's military background making the best plans, the three of them used to make Owen and me laugh so much when we were growing up and get us all into trouble with Gran." she smiled thinking about the trouble they all would get into when she was a kid.

Ianto brought her to the kitchen, where he gave her some freshly brewed coffee. "Mmmm…this smells wonderful. I think I might like you Ianto Jones, you're officially allowed to date my brother."

The cup was snatched from her hands before she could taste the miracle that was Ianto's coffee, "I'm glad you like my boyfriend, Caeli, but you're not allowed to drink coffee," Owen had just finished the autopsy and had come into the kitchen for a cup of coffee himself.

Before Caeli could come up with an answer, her cell phone rang, "You're lucky my cell rang, Owen, otherwise those would've been fighting words," she told him before leaving the kitchen to take the call.

Ianto and Owen smiled as Caeli left the kitchen. "You have an amazing sister," Ianto told Owen.

"Yeah, I do…" before Owen could add anything else, Caeli came back into the kitchen, "that was a quick cal…Caeli what's wrong?"

Her face was in shock and she was fighting to hold back tears, "That was Gran, we…uh…have to…um, Gus called earlier. Its Shawn, he was…he was…shot and he's unconscious and Gran wants to go to Santa Barbara, but Henry apparently doesn't want us to show up. I'm going to call Nathan; he can go up and sit with Shawn while we catch a flight over. You should go pack a bag."


	16. Chapter 15

~15~

Eureka-2008

It was almost four and a half hours after the incident in the lab and Nathan was still unconscious. He had been moved into a private room, away from prying eyes, because by now everyone in Eureka knew that the former Head of GD had been in a serious accident.

No one but Jack, Allison, Lupo, and Fargo knew the extent of Nathan's injuries and they had all sworn each other to silence. It wouldn't be prudent to let the resident of Eureka know that somehow Nathan had two hearts instead of one, that his brain activity was exceptionally higher than normal, and that Allison and Fargo were scared of how high it was. And through it all, Jack Carter hadn't left his side.

It wasn't a secret that Jack liked Nathan, had liked him from the moment he laid eyes on him, snarky personality and all. Everyone in Eureka seemed to know, everyone except Nathan, even Allison knew. It was one of the reasons she turned Nathan down when he proposed for the second time. She felt that Jack would be better for Nathan and that Nathan, despite how he acted, did like Jack. As soon as the proposal was shot down, Vincent's betting pool on the Allison Blake-Nathan Stark-Jack Carter love triangle shifted almost entirely to Jack-Nathan and a new bet opened up: how long it would take Nathan to realize the Sheriff's real feelings towards him.

Hearing a moan from the bed pulled Jack from his thoughts. "Nathan?" he whispered, not wanting to disturb him.

Nathan turned his head towards Jack's voice but didn't wake up. Jack looked down at him and noticed that while unconscious Nathan looked really young and vulnerable; two words that he never thought would describe Nathan Stark. Before Jack realized it, he was running his fingers through Nathan's soft curly hair and once he did, he stopped, feeling awkward. But almost immediately, Nathan let out another moan which made Jack smile as he began again, quickly understanding that he could get used to being this close to Nathan.

Twenty minutes later, Jack's fingers still in Nathan's hair, Allison walked in, "Any change?" she asked quietly.

"Not really, though he has made some noises. Have you found out how the experiment caused this?"

"No, and the worrying thing is, that the experiment shouldn't be responsible. Finding room temperature superconductors, while having the possibility for an explosion, wouldn't cause the second heart or the increase in brain activity. I'm still looking into it, and Fargo, Jo, and now Henry are looking into the material Nathan was working with, it's a prototype from Section 3. I highly doubt it could've caused this but I don't' know where else to look."

"Does Nathan have any family that we should contact?" Jack asked. He had been worrying about it for a while, Nathan was unconscious, had been for hours and if this were anyone else their family would have already been contacted.

"There is, but I'm not sure if now would be a good time to call them." Allison looked like she wasn't entirely sure she believed what she was saying.

"Why do you say that? Shouldn't they know that Nathan was in an accident and is currently comatose?" Jack asked incredulously.

"I just received a call from his sister asking where Nathan was and why he wasn't answering any of his phones. I told her he was busy and that I'd have him call her when he got the chance…"

"Is this going anywhere, Allison?" Jack interrupted.

"Caeli, his sister, let me know that Shawn, one of their brothers, was in an accident around the same time as Nathan's and Shawn, like Nathan, is currently in serious condition. There was no way, Carter, that I was going to tell her about Nathan when she's already stressed about Shawn." Towards the end Allison started to get defensive, Jack didn't know Caeli, didn't know any of Nathan's siblings, so he wouldn't be able to judge how she would react to that news.

"Wouldn't it be better for her to know? I mean she obviously wanted Nathan to know about Shawn, right now she probably thinks he couldn't care less." Jack was angry; Allison had no right to keep Nathan's condition from his sister.

"Fine, Carter, here's Nathan's cell. When Caeli calls back, you can explain to her what happened to Nathan."

Before Jack could respond, they heard a groan coming from the bed. "Nathan?" they both asked, momentarily forgetting their fight.

Bright green eyes blearily stared at them, and Jack breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed Nathan was actually seeing them, unlike when they found him after the accident staring at nothing. "Stop," Nathan whispered.

"Stop what?" Allison asked concerned.

"Stop arguing, stop worrying, stop feeling, just….stop," he pleaded before to passing out again.


	17. Chapter 16

~16~

The Train-2008

It hadn't taken much to convince Jack that Owen had to go to Manchester with John and Caeli, especially when Caeli explained about Shawn. Within the hour, Owen had his bag packed, kissed Ianto goodbye, and grabbed some paperwork to keep him occupied. The three siblings were now currently on the train for the three hour trip back to Manchester.

"What do you want to bet that Gran already has four plane tickets to Santa Barbara by the time we get there?" Owen asked, trying to lighten the situation.

"That's no bet at all, as soon as she got off the phone with Gus and after the initial shock wore off, Gran was already making travel arrangements. And it won't be for four it'll probably be six," was John's response.

"Why, who else would come?"

"The two people who've been staying with Gran and Caeli these past couple of days. I only met them for a second but I have the feeling they're related to Gran somehow." John has always had good instincts; it's what makes him a good pilot and officer. So if he thought the two strangers were related to Gran and therefore to the rest of them, they probably were and that was a good enough reason for Owen. The two lapsed into silence as they waited for Caeli to get back from calling Nathan.

Ten minutes later, Caeli came back with a mixed look of disappointment and skepticism on her face. "I couldn't get a hold of Nathan, had to talk to Allison. She said he's busy on a project and hasn't left his lab in days."

"Then why do you look skeptical?" Owen asked. While he and John and sometimes Shawn had good instincts when it came to people; Nathan and Caeli were often more trusting and in most cases oblivious when it came to people they weren't related to.

"Because even when Nathan's busy, his cell phone is always on and he always answers when family calls." It was an unsettling day when Caeli didn't prattle, she merely sighed and looked out the window watching the countryside pass.

"Caeli, what's wrong?" John worriedly asked almost a half hour later when Caeli sighed again.

"Lots of things, it's just been a bad few days. I mean first John and Sam Smith show up, which wasn't that bad but then they and Gran got all secretive. Then I find out you guys work for top secret government jobs, and ok I already knew that but aliens? That's just out there. Shawn got shot and Allison's lying. Why would she lie unless something happened to Nathan and she didn't want me to know?" she might have started babbling again but her dejected tone worried John and Owen more than the absence of babbling. "I'm going to try and call Nathan's cell again." She left again before either could say anything.

The two watched her go, before turning back to each other. "Gran better explain her relationship with those two guys or else Caeli might crack and I don't even want to think about what will happen if Nathan and Shawn aren't ok," Owen told John. They both remembered the time Caeli had a mental breakdown, when they visited her in the institution. The sight of her sitting on a bed, hands over her ears, rocking back and forth while talking nonsensically was something they would never, could never forget.

"They're going to be fine, and Gran will tell us soon, probably once she knows Shawn is going to be ok. If it's something bad or something that will change our entire outlook on life, she won't tell us; she'll think it will make it worse." John was trying to be comforting, but it wasn't really helping Owen; one, possibly two siblings were hurt and another was on the verge of her second mental breakdown.

When Caeli came back the second time, tears were streaming down her face. She climbed into John's lap and buried her face in his shoulder. It wasn't easy in the tight train compartment and John's six foot frame, but Caeli being only 5'4" helped.

"Caeli, what's wrong?" Owen asked with trepidation, echoing John's question from earlier.

She sniffled and brokenly replied, "Nathan…he's hurt…was in a lab explosion. And he's unconscious…like Shawn. What're we going to do?" the last bit ended in a sob.

John and Owen shared a look over Caeli's head, there wasn't anything they could do, not right now, except try and comfort Caeli. There wouldn't be anything to do until they got to Santa Barbara and Eureka, and even then there was no guarantee that anything could be done.


	18. Chapter 17

~17~

Manchester-2008

The walk from the train station to Gran's house was spent in silence. The three lost in their own trains of thought, worrying about their two siblings a continent away and, in John and Owen's cases, also worrying about the one walking next to them.

Twenty minutes later they arrived at Gran's house, it was quiet. The joyous sounds from the morning were lost, replaced with the silence of people waiting for their world to end. Caeli didn't say anything to anybody, just made her way upstairs to her room to pack a bag. In fact, Caeli hadn't said anything since she told them about Nathan.

Gran came out from the kitchen and gave them each a hug, "Where's Caeli?" she asked after releasing Owen.

"Upstairs getting a bag packed," John told her.

"When are we leaving?" Owen asked.

"Sometime early in the morning, the flight leaves at 6:25 tomorrow morning so I'm thinking we should leave the house no later than 3:30," Gran explained. "I made dinner, it kept me distracted."

"Yea, a couple of us are going to have to go to Eureka," John told her, "Nathan was in a lab accident almost the same time Shawn…" he couldn't finish the sentence. He had seen a lot in his time in Atlantis and even before, he'd seen good people die, get hurt, go missing, and the bad guys win but the thought that his little brother was shot was almost too much for him to handle.

"Shawn's going to be fine, at least that's what I was able to get out of Gus' ramblings. And so will Nathan," Livinia reassured her two grandsons. "How is Caeli dealing?"

Owen sighed, "Not well, she cried most of the way and after she told us about Nathan it was like she shut down."

Gran nodded at what Owen told her and started walking back to the kitchen, "Come help me set the table."

Gran was barely holding on, John could tell. As he walked down the hall and into the kitchen, he noticed that the sitting room doors were shut. As he grabbed the mashed potatoes, he asked, "Are you're friends coming with us?"

Gran, who was getting the plates out of the cabinet, paused, "I'm not sure. Would you mind if they did?"

"Are you going to tell us who they really are?" John looked to Owen, they both wanted to know, needed to know and it reflected in their eyes.

"If I tell you, will you both promise that you won't tell Caeli? At least until we're sure Nathan and Shawn are all right, I don't want this hanging over her head." Though it took a second, they both agreed. "All right, let's go talk in the sitting room."

"What about dinner?" Owen wondered aloud.

"It won't hurt it to sit out for a little while," she left the kitchen before any other response could be uttered. John and Owen followed as they knew this was the only chance to find out what was going on.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs they paused, listening, music was drifting down the stairs presumably from Caeli's room. They easily recognized the song as "The Blues" by Switchfoot. "At least she doesn't have Rammstein playing," Gran said as she opened the sitting room door.

Wondering when Gran decided to add an old fashioned police box to the décor of the room, John missed Owen's shocked gasp but not his declaration of "You're Harold Saxon! And that's…that's the TARDIS! Oh shit, one of you is the Doctor!"


	19. Chapter 18

~18~

Manchester, a little bit earlier-2008

The Doctor and Master spent most of their afternoon in the sitting room maintaining mental contact with Nathan and Shawn while taking breaks to check on Livinia. They felt it when Nathan woke up for a minute, but became worried when he seemed to slip deeper into himself, retreating further into his mind. Shawn, however, seemed to be in a healing sleep one minute and semi-conscious the next. Both of their wounds were almost superficial for both Timelords and Lanteans, but the new mental onslaught kept them unconscious.

They didn't speak for most of the afternoon and the only real movement in the past hour was the Doctor grabbing the Master's hand to stop his tapping. When they heard the front door open and close, they both left the minds' of their injured great-grandchildren to come back to themselves knowing that dinner would probably be served soon. It took a couple of minutes before the Master realized that the Doctor was still holding his hand.

"That's enough of that," he said as he tried to remove it from the Doctor's grasp.

"Will you stop if I let go?" the Doctor inquired, not relinquishing his hold.

"Not like I can help it," was the petulant reply.

Before the Doctor could respond, the sitting room doors opened and Livinia walked in followed by John and a young man they could only assume was Owen. They watched in amusement as John stared at the TARDIS in confusion, though it was short lived by Owen's astonished statement.

"You work for Torchwood," the Doctor knew it to be true as he started putting together the pieces from what he'd heard from Livinia and Caeli these past couple of days. Owen Harper, Doctor Owen Harper, lived in Cardiff, and worked for a secret government organization. He couldn't be part of anything but Torchwood.

Before Owen could respond, Livinia said, "I'm telling them the truth, but I need your help." She gestured to the boys to take a seat on the couch opposite the Doctor and Master as she sat down in an armchair.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes as no one was sure where to begin. Finally the Master, feeling it was best to start simple and never one to beat around the bush, stated, "You're aliens."

"Koschei," "Papa," both the Doctor and Livinia admonished at the same time as John and Owen sat in shock.

"What? Neither of you were saying anything and it's not as if you weren't going to tell them," was the mocking reply.

"Wait, what do you mean aliens?" John cautiously asked.

"As in not human. You're grandparents were not from this miserable little planet and neither were their parents, what do you think I mean by aliens?"

Sending a glare to her father, Livinia tried to salvage the situation, "Despite not handling the situation with any tact, he is telling the truth."

"No, no, that can't be true because someone would've noticed when we were growing up. And I work for Torchwood, John's with the SGC, both have advanced technology, there's no way they wouldn't know two of their officers weren't human," Owen tried to contradict.

Livinia explained, "I was born on a planet called Gallifrey to a race of people called Timelords. They," she pointed to the Doctor and Master, "are my fathers. And yes I know they're two men, but not human so they don't have the same limitations…"

"Wait, wait, one of you had Gran?" Owen asked them, and before waiting for an answer continued, "Does that mean…that we," he gestured to John and himself, "can…but how is that physically possible…" he trailed off as though trying to figure out the answers.

"Owen now's not the time and I'd rather not have that possibility in my head, thanks. How and why did you come to Earth?" John asked.

"She decided to shack up with a lower species," the Master told them.

"You're still on that? Wait a minute…I thought you approved?" Livinia sounded hurt.

"I did at the time, but I've had about 800 years to think about it and have come to the conclusion that any civilization that is forced to abandon their home to nothing more than space vampires is not someone I want you to be associated with."

"And Dad had to blow up our home because we were losing to, what seem to me, nothing more than glorified trash cans."

The Doctor coughed, embarrassed at Livinia's statement, "All right you two, can we please get back on track? Look," he told John and Owen, "Livinia fell in love with someone she wasn't supposed to. Timelords and Lanteans were always on good terms, allies if you will, but a child between the two species was forbidden. When she was found with Janus, a Lantean, they were told never to see each other again. Livinia got mad at us when we wouldn't help her and came to Earth where she found out she was pregnant with your mother."

While John and Owen sat dumfounded on the couch as they took in the Doctor's words, Livinia and the Doctor continued explaining about Timelord biology and the purpose of the necklaces Livinia made. John's face slowly changed from confusion to understanding and finally nervousness, "By Lanteans, do you mean Ancients? The whole ascended to a higher plane of existence deal, used to live in Atlantis, those Lanteans?" John asked.

"Yes," the three Timelords answered slowly, confused how John knew about Lanteans.

"That actually explains a lot," he thought aloud.

"Okay, slowly processing the whole thing. But can we get back to my early question of why he looks like Harold Saxon?" Owen asked pointing at the Master.

The Doctor sighed as he heard the Master mutter about people and one track minds, before answering, "Because he is Harold Saxon."

Owen's jaw dropped as he shook an accusing finger at the Master, "You…you sent me to the Himalayas! Do you have any idea how bloody cold that was?"

John looked to his youngest brother, "Seriously Owen? We find out that we're half human and you focus on the fact that he sent you to the Himalayas?"

Before Owen could retort, there was a quiet knock on the sitting room door and seconds later Caeli poked her head in. "Are we having dinner anytime soon?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, why don't you set the table and we'll be out in a couple minutes," Livinia suggested. After Caeli closed the door, Livinia turned to her parents and grandchildren, "Remember, not a word about this to Caeli."

"You're telling them but not her? That doesn't seem fair Livinia," the Master told her.

"Caeli can't handle this, not right now. When we're sure about Nathan and Shawn, I'll tell her," Livinia said as she got out of her chair and made her way to the door.

"She's stronger than you think," the Master replied as they walked to the dining room.

Dinner, for the first time, was a silent affair as everyone was locked in their own thoughts. Food was picked at, no one was able to meet anyone else's eyes, and the normally happy, energetic family was despondent as the past day's events retook the forefront of everyone's minds. Towards the end of the meal, it was decided what time they would leave for the airport, that Livinia and John would go to Santa Barbara, with the Doctor and Master meeting them there the next day (no way was the Doctor leaving his TARDIS on a different continent) while Owen and Caeli would go to Eureka.

After dinner, Caeli went back upstairs to her room, this time playing Rammstein to her grandmother's dismay. John and Owen also went upstairs, to the guest room, to discuss what they just learned and while Livinia cleaned the kitchen to occupy her mind, the Doctor and Master went back to the sitting room to once again make contact with Nathan's and Shawn's minds. It was going to be a long night.


	20. Chapter 19

~19~

Eureka-2008

Jack was late. He was to have picked up Nathan's brother and sister twenty minutes ago, but Fargo stopped him just as he was leaving GD with an update on the investigation into Nathan's accident. Fargo told Jack that he and Henry had recovered Nathan's necklace and that it seemed to have some strange properties. They were both looking into whether that could have played a role with the weird after effects Nathan seemed to have. And like Allison said, there was no way the experiment could have caused whatever happened to Nathan.

It took a while to shake off Fargo, though the mere mention of Nathan's sister had Fargo running back to the lab to run more tests. Jack paused to wonder what happened between the two before running to the Jeep and speeding off to the airport.

Luck was on Jack's side as the flight was delayed and he arrived before it landed. He spent the time wondering about Owen and Caeli, about how alike they were to their eldest brother. Jack was so lost in his contemplations that, twenty minutes later, he didn't hear the pair approaching his jeep until a small voice asked with a semi-British accent, "Sheriff Carter?"

Looking out the window he saw two people who he assumed were Nathan's brother and sister. At first glance, Jack could see little resemblance between them and Nathan, especially with Caeli being so petite and Owen being of average height while Nathan towered over everyone at 6'4". But as he looked closely he could see that Caeli and Nathan had the curly dark hair and green eyes, though hers were a bit more hazel, and everything about Owen's body language screamed Nathan.

Getting out of his Jeep, he walked the short distance to them, "Owen and Caeli I presume?" he asked. After shaking their hands and noticing that they each were carrying two bags, he added, "Need any help with your bags?" They both shook their heads no and after he opened the trunk, they put them away.

The drive back to Eureka was spent in silence, Owen gazing out the window, Caeli reading and Jack concentrating on driving. Twenty minutes went by before Jack broke the silence by asking, "What are you reading, Caeli?"

"Livy's _Ab Urbe Condita_," was the distracted reply.

"Really?" Jack asked shocked.

"Yeah. Why is it always assumed that people either like history and English or mathematics and science? It's not a written rule and if it is I want to see it. I happen to find classical history very fascinating. I mean, what other culture embraces a foundation myth where the founder cheats in order to be the one to name the city, either has his brother killed or he kills his brother, and then kidnaps women in order to keep the Roman people from dying out after the first generation? And then there's the fact that…"

As Caeli continued to ramble about Livy and Roman history, Jack turned to Owen and quietly asked, "Should we interrupt her?"

Owen quickly turned towards Jack, "No, this is the most she's talked since we heard about Nathan and Shawn. Just let her talk." And they did, twenty minutes later when Jack pulled into GD she was still talking; though Caeli quickly stopped as soon as they entered the building and the reality of the reason they were there made itself known again.

Jack led Owen and Caeli to Nathan's room where Owen went into doctor mode and immediately checked his vitals while Caeli stood in shock near the door staring at her comatose brother. Jack left the room, wanting to give them time alone with Nathan. Soon after, Caeli left also, tears streaming down her face. Wanting to comfort her, he put his arm around her shoulders and told her, "Nathan's going to be ok you know. He has the best doctors in the world and Owen looking after him."

Caeli nodded in agreement, though he knew she really didn't believe him. She let him hold her a minute before pulling away. Looking up at him with green eyes that reminded him of the man lying in the next room, she asked, "Can I help in the investigation?" seeing him hesitate with his answer, she added, "Please, I have to do something. Owen is doing what he always does when one of us is hurt, being a doctor. I feel like I'm not doing anything and Nathan wouldn't want me to be crying."

It went against Jack's better judgment, but he agreed, "All right, let's go see what Fargo's found out about the necklace."

He led her down the hall and to Fargo's lab, along the way his words finally seemed to register in Caeli's mind when she asked, "What necklace?"

"Nathan's necklace, it seems to have some strange properties and Henry and Fargo are wondering if it might be the cause of his weird symptoms."

Caeli was silent the rest of the way, thinking over what Jack said. As they entered the lab she told him, "It couldn't be his necklace. We each have one. Gran made us one when we were born, even Mum has one."

Henry, who had heard Caeli's statement, looked up from his work and asked, "So you have one?" when he saw her nod in agreement he continued, "and it's with you?" again Caeli nodded and Henry inquired, "May I see it? If I can compare your necklace with Nathan's I might be able to see how the explosion changed the composition."

Jack noticed Caeli looked very wary at the prospect of taking off her necklace; her eyes had gone wide and her skin pale. After a moments thought Caeli nodded, her hands shook as she went to take off her necklace. She put it in Henry's outstretched hand while quickly taking several steps back; she bumped into Fargo as he entered the lab which caused her to jump in a mixture of panic and pain. Jack was heartbreakingly reminded of how he found Nathan as Caeli's hands went to her head, she dropped to her knees, and it seemed as if she no longer saw any of the men in the room.


	21. Chapter 20

~20~

The TARDIS

The Master sat in his room in the TARDIS. He was waiting for the Doctor to finish some last minute repairs, the ones he started prior to Nathan's and Shawn's accidents, the ones he refused to leave in disorder so that they could go meet Livinia and John in Santa Barbara. While waiting he was reflecting on the past few days and how he felt that one of them should have gone to Eureka with Owen and Caeli. The Doctor had immediately shot down the suggestion and despite the fact that that wasn't surprising considering he did just try to destroy the planet, it hurt because family had always been important to the Master and the Doctor knew that.

He didn't notice the Doctor entering his room until he heard his voice ask, "What are you listening to?"

The Master looked at him confused until he realized he had music playing in the room and then he became concerned because he didn't remember turning it on. Listening to a few lines, he quickly figured out the song, "Its 'Viva la Vida,'" he told the Doctor.

"Where'd you hear it?"

'_Great_,' the Master thought, '_he's getting into one of his inquisitive moods._' He knew the only way to stop him asking too many questions was to give him the whole story. "I couldn't sleep, so I wandered around the TARDIS for a while then went out to look at the stars. When I came back in Caeli was at the piano playing it. Thought it had a catchy tune so I sat and listened to her for a while. Before she went to bed, she told me the name and I looked it up a few minutes ago, have it set to replay."

The Doctor must have seen something on his face or heard something in his voice because the next thing the Master saw was the Doctor's grin. "What?" he asked warily.

If possible, the Doctor's grin got bigger, "You like her. You don't like anyone."

"Not true, I like Livinia and I used to like you," the Master scowled as he responded.

"No, Livinia's our daughter and you love her. You still like me otherwise you would've killed me when you had the chance this past year. But you genuinely like Caeli, and not in the 'Oh, she's family so I have to like her' kind of way. And..." the Doctor trailed off and the Master was grateful for the break in being psychoanalyzed.

When the Doctor was still silent after a couple minutes with his head cocked as if listening to something, the Master asked, "Not that I care, but could you either finish what you were saying or leave?"

The Doctor turned back to the Master, "The song," he distractedly said. The Master had forgotten that "Viva la Vida" was still playing.

He listened along with the Doctor, _"Shattered windows and the sound of drums/People couldn't believe what I'd become"_ turning to the Doctor, he asked, "What about it?"

"Tell me you don't see it?" the Doctor asked with an earnest look.

"See what?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"The song...it's you, I mean if everyone could have a song that represented them, this would be yours."

The Master looked at the Doctor as if he was crazy, eyebrow raised, still confused, "What are you on about?"

The Doctor looked about two seconds away from grabbing the Master's shoulders, "Seriously, just listen."

The Master listened; the song had started over and was somewhere in the first verse, "_Sweep the streets I used to own" _the Master turned to the Doctor then, an affronted look on his face, "I have _never_ swept streets. Now if you're done wasting time, I think it's time we headed to Santa Barbara." He left the room, leaving the Doctor behind. The Doctor sighed then followed.


	22. Chapter 21

~21~

Los Angeles en route to Santa Barbara-2008

After seeing Owen and Caeli to their next flight which would take them to Oregon, Livinia and John went to get the rental car to take them to Santa Barbara. Twenty minutes into the drive, John asked, "So why are we driving to Santa Barbara instead of taking another flight?"

"I thought we could have a chat as we drove, take the next right," she told him, "that and you haven't really said anything since I told you the truth."

After making the turn John asked the question that had been bugging him since Gran told him and Owen the truth, "What're the odds that all five of us have noticeable alien traits? I mean, we're only a half alien."

Livinia sighed; she had a feeling John would ask that and didn't relish trying to explain alien genetics to him while he was driving. "Timelord and Lantean genes are more dominant than human genes. True, there was always the chance that none of you would have inherited certain genes from either species but Helen wouldn't have asked for me to make you all necklaces if you hadn't had some noticeable alien traits. That and when Helen did finally confide in me about her life, after coming back to England, she told me that all of you were supposed to be twins."

It was only years of training as a pilot that kept John from swerving into the adjacent lane. "Twins?!"

"Yes twins, the ultrasound for each of you had two heartbeats, leading the doctors to assume you were all twins. Twins were rare on Gallifrey, and among the Lanteans too, come to think of it, so the fact that each of you were supposed to have a "twin" coupled with the fact that Timelords do have two hearts and you arrive at the conclusion that everyone in this family has two hearts." Livinia sighed before continuing, answering John's unanswered question, "I didn't keep many secrets from your mother, I told her the truth of her heritage when I thought she could handle it. Even though she wasn't an active person in the five of your lives, Helen made the decision for you all not to be told and until now I respected that decision."

John clenched his jaw but didn't say anything, his attention focused on the stop and go traffic in front of him. They had just got on Route 101, heading north towards Santa Barbara, when another question came to John. "What's going to happen when we know Nathan and Shawn are alright?"

Livinia glanced over at John confused, "What do you mean?"

John firmly kept his gaze to the road, "Once they're better, and you tell the three of them the truth, are you going to make us wear our necklaces?"

"No," she confidently answered, "you're all adults, well, on Earth anyway, and I can't make you do anything you don't want to. Besides, once I tell Nathan the truth, he's going to treat this newfound information like a science project and basically try and study himself. Shawn will think it's a new adventure and want to know everything that he can now do. Caeli, I think will be somewhere in the middle," she looked at John with a knowing look, "As for you and Owen, you'll use your telepathic abilities to make sure all your siblings are alright."

John sent a glowering look back, "You don't know that for sure," he told her.

"Please," she playfully mocked, "you and Owen have made it your personal duty to make sure everyone in this family is alright. The two of you can make Nathan stop working on his experiments, make Shawn stay still for more than a minute, and ground Caeli when she loses perspective."

John thought for a minute, sighed, and then conceded, "So how far does this Timelord telepathy thing reach?"

Livinia laughed, the mood considerably brighter than when they got in the car and for the rest of the journey to the hospital the two joked around.


	23. Chapter 22

~22~

Santa Barbara-2008

Shawn was floating, at least it felt like he was floating and had been for some time. He was aware of voices around him, though they sounded like they were coming from far away at times. He knew he was asleep, verging on entering into a coma, though sometimes he felt like he could claw his way into consciousness. Shawn vaguely remembered hearing his dad and Gus talking about Gran coming, but that seemed like days ago.

Shawn drifted; he had been so close to consciousness. He knew he heard the beep of two heart monitors which told him he was in a hospital and wasn't in a private room, though Shawn was pretty sure he deserved one. While he drifted, Shawn became aware that he wasn't alone in his head, and that fact alone jolted him awake. Shawn would pretend to have other people in his head; it was all part of pretending to be psychic. But this wasn't a big reveal, telling the cops who committed the crime in a showy way; this was real, there were four people actually inside his head.

Thankfully, Shawn was able to block out what he knew belonged to the others, for instance the whispers of random thoughts and feelings. Oddly though, Shawn seemed to recognize half the people now taking up residence in his brain, Gran, Nathan, and two people he subconsciously recognized as family but didn't know. He opened his eyes a bit and peeked around the room, noticing that is was void of any visitors and patients. That realization had him sitting upright in bed, if there were no other patients in the room than that meant the double heart monitor was for him.

"Soooo not good," he mumbled as he realized what this meant. Somehow after getting shot he had managed to gain a slight mental connection with some of his family and grow a second heart. These developments would probably lead to Shawn becoming a lab rat for some doctor, and years of playing lab rat to Nathan and Caeli had taught him to try and run as fast as he could.

Shawn quickly turned off monitors before removing the IV and many electrodes connected to his chest and head, threw his blankets aside, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and was just about to make his escape when he heard a voice ask, "And where are you going?"

Looking up startled, he saw John and Gus. Plastering a smile on his face, Shawn answered, "Running away, wanna help me escape?"

John smiled and shook his head, while Gus admonished him, "Shawn you were shot less than a day ago! You need to be in bed resting."

"Honestly Gus, I feel fine," Shawn told him and before Gus could respond Shawn asked, "Where's Dad?"

John's smile fell, "He's in the lobby having a discussion with Gran."

Shawn felt his smile dim because when John said "discussion" he really meant "fight." It didn't surprise Shawn that Gran was here or that Dad and Gran got into another argument. Gran was very active in her grandchildren's lives and she and Dad never got along well. Focusing on the new mental link that existed between him and Gran, Shawn felt her anger and frustration at Dad, and her worry for Nathan and himself.

What did surprise Shawn was Gran answering back with a shocked '_Shawn?'_

'_OK, totally freaking out. First I find out I can actually feel other people in my mind, then I somehow have two hearts, and now I can talk to the people now in my head. How is this possible?'_

'_Shawn, I need you to calm down...'_ Gran tried to calm him down.

'_How are you still able to fight with Dad and try to calm me down at the same time? You're not even showing that you're having another conversation, though what you and Dad are doing can't really be classified as a conversation I don't think. I, on the other hand, have John and Gus looking at me like I've lost my mind, though they might be right on that count. This is just crazy.' _Shawn rambled, because really, this was the time to start rambling and John and Gus were looking at Shawn like he'd gone crazy, though John looked like he might have some idea as to what was going on.

'_Shawn,'_ Gran started, sounding worried, _'how do you know that Henry and I are arguing and that I'm talking to you both without giving away my feelings in either situation?'_

'_You mean how do I know that you're not letting Dad know you're talking to me while still yelling at him? No idea. Just like how I don't know how I know the doctor is going to be coming back to check up on me in three minutes and twenty-nine seconds, which means I'm going to be making my escape any moment. Oh, That and we're going to have to go to Eureka, something's going to happen to Caeli, and again I don't know how I know that.' _ Shawn turned to his older brother and best friend saying, "Let's sign me out and go meet Gran and Dad downstairs. Then we're going to have to head out to Eureka."

Shawn found the clothes he was wearing when he got shot and put them on before walking out, knowing John and Gus were following him and not even ten seconds later he felt another presence in his head.


	24. Chapter 23

~23~

Eureka-2008

It's happening again, the pressure of other minds against hers, the feeling of losing herself to the thoughts of others. Was she asleep or awake? Were her eyes open or closed? Was she talking, she thought her lips were moving, but was she saying anything?

"Caeli? Caeli?! Caeli!"

Who was calling and was that even her name? She didn't know anymore, wasn't certain of anything.

_'God, what have we done? It's like Nathan all over again.'_

_'Doctor Stark is going to kill me when he wakes up and I don't think that the sheriff will be able to save me.'_

No, no, no! She didn't want to hear these things, shouldn't be able to hear them. It was an invasion of privacy, it was rude, and she tried not to be rude. Suddenly, she felt someone grab her shoulders and shake her. She wanted to yell stop. "Caeli?" '_Where's Henry? He should be back by now. There's something wrong with these necklaces; Nathan loses his and he grows a second heart, Caeli takes hers off and becomes catatonic.' _"Fargo, get over here."

"But...wh...wha..what can I do?..._Ok, I'm moving but I'm doing it under protest, Caeli doesn't like me under the best of circumstances and Doctor Stark is going to kill me, somehow this is going to be my fault, I don't know how but it will_..."

"Look, if you're going to panic and not be any help, go and find Henry, tell him to hurry up because it shouldn't take this long to get a med team. If you're both not back in three minutes I'm taking Caeli to the infirmary myself..._and hoping her brother doesn't try to kill me_"

Then hands were at her shoulders, had they ever left? The voice, the sheriff, part of her mind whispered, is talking again, would there ever be silence? "Caeli, focus on my voice. Can you hear me? Please say something!" _'Stop panicking Jack! It won't help the situation.' _Speech, she vaguely remembered speech, mouth moving to produce words, air vibrating the vocal chords to produce sounds. It was easier to think for herself now with only one other person in the room, and she tried, tried so very hard to give in to Jack's request. _'Thank God she's talking. That's a good sign...wait is that Latin? No, hold on, that's science, isn't it?... Right, it's been three minutes time to go.'_

She was moving, cradled by strong arms and out of the lab in seconds. The moment she was taken from the lab, once she was swept up in the flurry of movement that was GD, the peace that had descended on her mind vanished. Each second that passed..._'I'm never going to finish this project"_...the more people that went by..._'finding the velocity of the downward'_...the worse the pressure in her skull became..._'Should I call her or not, I.' _ She should be fighting, resisting..._'How could I have been redacted?'_...doing anything to get away from these people.

Stop, stop, stop! _'Where's the sheriff running'_...She wants to scream..._'Fargo's done something'_...to know that she's still alive..._'a negative sign! How could I forget a'_...that she has the strength to withstand the voices that were slowly trying to drive her insane. _'Thank God, the infirmary. Just have to get to Nathan's room.'_

"What the bloody hell happened?!" She knew that voice, had heard it her entire life, at least, she thought she had. _'No, this can't happen to her, not again.'_


	25. Chapter 24

~24~

The TARDIS

The Doctor followed the Master through the halls of the TARDIS; he observed the tenseness in the Master's body language. Neither spoke. For a single moment the Doctor was reminded of the time shortly after Livinia left: trailing the Master as they argued over what they could have done differently. Now, like then, the Doctor wanted nothing more than to take the Master in his arms and make his worry, pain, and anger disappear.

Ten minutes later they were still walking to the control room, though now the Doctor was walking beside the Master. Stealing glances every now and then, he tried to think of something to calm the Master, whose mind was probably still on the events of the past few days. Thinking back, the Doctor remembered his words to Jack and Martha on the Valiant, about having someone to care for. He was ecstatic of his newfound family, glad to know the truth behind Livinia staying away, but in the here and now, his mind was focused on the man walking alongside him.

The Doctor had an idea to help the Master, it was probably neither the best idea nor the ideal solution for the Master's worry, but it was the only thing that had worked in the past. Stopping suddenly, the Doctor grabbed the Master's hand causing the Master to look at him with an arched eyebrow and stopped as well. Quickly, before his mind came up with all the reasons why this was a bad idea and without thinking of the consequences, the Doctor backed the Master into the wall behind him and kissed him. Thankfully, the Master was too surprised to immediately push the Doctor away and the Doctor was able to revel in the feel of the Master's lips against his own. Seconds later the Master put his hands on the Doctor's arms, the Doctor braced himself for violent reaction he knew was coming but instead the Master gripped his arms like the Doctor was the only thing keeping him standing.

Smiling slightly, the Doctor moved his mouth from the Master's, down his jaw and began to lavish attention on the Master's neck.

"What're you doing?" the Master questioned.

Not wanting to move his mouth from where it was, the Doctor answered mentally, _'What does it look like?'_

Gasping faintly the Master replied, "This isn't going to make things better, you know. It's not going to change anything either."

Before the Doctor could respond, another consciousness violently entered their minds. It took a second for them to realize it and when they did, they both looked at each other and said, "Caeli!"

Together they ran to the control room, the Doctor unconsciously grabbing the Master's hand along the way, wanting nothing more than to get to their great-granddaughter. They had just arrived when the scared voice of their daughter entered their minds, _'Dad?! Papa?!'_

_'We know, Livinia, we're on our way' _the Doctor told Livinia.

_'You'd better be on your way to pick up John, Shawn, and me.' _Even though she wasn't there, the Doctor could easily picture Livinia standing with her hands on her hips.

_'Where else would we be going?'_ the Master sarcastically responded yanking his hand from the Doctor's grasp.

Before Livinia could retort, the Doctor asked, _'Where and when exactly are you?'_

_'Its 6:35 pm PST and we're standing outside the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.'_

_'Right, we'll be there soon.'_

The conversation ended and the Doctor and Master started the process of flying the TARDIS to Santa Barbara. They worked in silence, moving seamlessly around the consol pressing buttons, flipping switches, or turning handles when needed. Minutes later, they had landed. Stepping outside of the TARDIS, the Doctor realized he landed her on a street corner, which thankfully wasn't very busy. Livinia stood a little ways away, leaning against a light pole. Near her was a young man, who had to be Shawn, sitting on the curb, John was no where in sight.

Coming up behind Livinia, the Doctor asked, "Where's John?"

Without turning around, Livinia said, "You're late," instead of answering his question.

"You didn't really expect us to be on time traveling in this obsolete piece of junk, did you?" the Master asked pointing to the TARDIS behind him.

Before either the Doctor or Livinia could respond, Shawn whispered, "John's on his way back, he's totally not happy." Looking up he saw his great-grandparents standing above him, "So you'd be the other two people now taking up residence in my head?" His head cocked to the side as if listening to something, than an amused expression crossed his face, "Wow, in denial much?" he asked the two of them.

The Doctor and Master looked at Shawn confused than at each other, the same thought passed through their minds, _'Which side of the family does this come from?' _They turned to Livinia looking for answers; she merely shrugged her shoulders in response, _'This is as new to me as it is to you. Though Shawn's been making these types of predictions since he woke up.'_

This was new territory for all of them; there had never been a Timelord-Lantean child before (at least to their knowledge). There would be no telling what abilities the children would have.

Shawn wasn't paying attention to the adults and their silent conversation, instead his gaze was focused on John, who was quickly approaching. John had a worried expression on his face and before anyone could ask, he said, "We need to be in Eureka now," while looking to the Doctor, Master, and Livinia expectantly.

Without a word the Doctor steered everyone into the TARDIS. John was too worried and Shawn was still getting over the drugs his doctor insisted on giving him before leaving the hospital to either notice or care that they were heading into a Police Box. Upon entering and seeing it was bigger on the inside the two merely raised an eyebrow in question, yet neither wanted an explanation. The Doctor motioned for the Master and Livinia to join him at the console and together the three piloted the TARDIS.

With three experienced Timelords, the ride was a lot smoother than any ride the Doctor had been on since he stole the TARDIS all those years ago. Within seconds the TARDIS had landed in Eureka, in unison they moved toward the door. Before the doors were opened, Livinia turned to her grandsons and said, "You're staying here, we don't need Nathan and Caeli to be put under any more stress than they already are," she switched her gaze to her fathers and continued without pausing, "and you two, let me do the talking. I know Allison; know how to make her see reason." Though they looked like they wanted to protest, the four men looked at her with her hands on her hips and barely made eye contact with each other before agreeing with their daughter/grandmother.

The three Timelords exited the TARDIS and were greeted with exclamations ranging from shock, "Livinia?", to disbelief, "What the hell?"

The Doctor's focus was on Nathan who was being held down by Owen and a man in a law enforcement uniform, while Nathan was trying very hard to escape their grasps. The Master's attention was instead on Caeli who was staring unfocusedly on the ceiling; Caeli whose lips were in constant motion though her words were barely audible. Livinia called Allison away from Caeli's side over to her and began talking earnestly, explaining why they were going to take Nathan and Caeli.

The two Timelords shared a look before walking to their great-grandchildren, the Doctor to Nathan, the Master to Caeli. He walked over and stood next to Owen, he was in the process of putting his fingers on Nathan's forehead to directly telepathically connect with him when the officer asked, "What are you doing?"

The Doctor merely looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, not really wanting to explain to this human that his friend was part alien.

Thankfully, Owen spoke before the Doctor could open his mouth and probably make a rude comment, "Sheriff, he can help," at the sheriff's disbelieving look, Owen added softly but sincerely, "Jack, he's family." The sheriff still didn't look convinced, but didn't make anymore complaints about the Doctor's help.

He gently put his fingers on Nathan's forehead and entered his mind to try to force him into unconsciousness and calm him down, but within minutes had to withdraw because Nathan's mind was far more complicated than the Doctor expected for a half human with no mental training. He looked up, trying to make eye contact with the Master but instead caught Owen's gaze, it took him a moment to recognize the look in Owen's eyes and when he did, his hearts skipped a beat. It was the look Koschei had, begging him to put an end to their fighting, begging him not to give up searching for Livinia, and later begging him not to leave. It was the look in Livinia's eyes when she wanted their support with Janus, begging them to explain to her why she and Janus could never be. And now, here was the same look, centuries later in his great-grandson's eyes begging him to make his brother and sister all right.


	26. Chapter 25

A/N: Despite not updating in almost a year, this fic isn't abandoned, and it won't be abandoned. I have the whole story planned out in my head, its just getting it to paper which is proving difficult. And between my and my beta's school work (both of us are in our last year of college), I'm not sure when I'll be updating next, but it will be updated.

~25~

Eureka-2008

"Entropy is increasing..._**Odi et amo**_... At any junction in an electric circuit the total current flowing towards the junction is equal..._**Quare id faciam, fortasse requires**_...Any static force system will be in equilibrium if the resultant force and resultant moment are both equal to zero..." The Master heard Caeli speaking before he reached her and stared into her emotionless eyes for several seconds, wondering what was going on inside her head.

"_**Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior**_... In a closed loop in a network the sum of the voltage drops or potential differences around the loop is zero." He lightly put his fingers to her temple, closed his eyes, gently pushed into her mind, and was immediately bombarded with the thoughts of those around him, _'I don't know, Eureka is one of the best medical facilities...SERIOUSLY Allison, you can't help...god, I need to do something, I'm a doctor for god's sakes...How many brothers does Nathan have...not mine. These feelings, they aren't, can't be...I'm NOT going to fail my family again...Bum-Bum-Bum-Bu..." _ Abruptly the Master pulled away, not wanting to hear anymore, and worrying over the fact that in his brief trip into Caeli's mind he wasn't able to sense her at all.

Caeli continued her never ending litany of Latin literature and scientific theories, she showed no sign that she was aware of what had just taken place inside her own mind, her face was still expressionless, her eyes just as blank. The Master turned from her to the Doctor who was staring back at him and the Master knew the look of worry on the Doctor's face was mirrored on his. _'Theta...I...' _he couldn't do it, couldn't ask the Doctor for help, it went against everything he'd lived by during his last few lifetimes.

Thankfully, the Doctor knew what he was trying to say because he merely responded, _'Let's help Nathan, and then we'll go to Caeli.'_

He wanted to protest, Nathan was fighting whereas Caeli was lost somewhere inside her mind. Logically, though, the Master knew helping Nathan first was the right thing to do because he was fighting it would be easier to reach him, Caeli had almost completely shut down and would take longer to get to her. He hated conceding to the Doctor, to acknowledge that he was right, but he crossed the room to stand between Owen and the Doctor, silently refusing to be near the human holding Nathan's other hand.

Together they connected with Nathan's mind. It wasn't easy navigating Nathan's mind but it was easier than when the Doctor tried on his own. They wandered down several halls, each side had doors, most shut though the few that were open showed experiments, some completed some in varying stages of progress. After a few minutes (or hours, or days, for time had no real meaning here), they found Nathan muttering while pacing in front of a whiteboard, with his hands tightly gripping his hair in frustration. He'd stop his pacing to quickly jot things down on the whiteboard, randomly erasing parts and replacing them with complex equations. Afterwards, the pacing began again and the cycle was repeated.

They watched him as he did this for close to fifteen minutes, or so, before the Doctor called out to him,_ 'Nathan.' _

The mental version of Nathan paused, pen in hand about to add more to the whiteboard, looked over at them before visibly tightening the hand left in his hair and turning back to the whiteboard as if it had betrayed him, muttering, _'No, no, no, this is not real.'_

They faced each other, silently fighting over whom should break the news to Nathan, the Master raised his eyebrow at the Doctor while glancing to Nathan as if to remind the Doctor what happened the last time he tried to explain the truth. Sighing, he turned from the Master and slowly made his way over to Nathan, he had barely taken three steps when Nathan imperceptibly stiffened.

Nathan gripped the edge of the whiteboard, his shoulders taut, he didn't look to the Doctor as he whispered, _'Stop. You're feeling guilty, you're both guilty and I can feel it. I can feel it and I shouldn't be able to.' _

_ 'Nathan, I need you to calm down and listen,' _the Doctor started and then proceeded to tell Nathan exactly what happened to him and why,_ 'You're not crazy," _he concluded.

Nathan sardonically responded, _'And you being here would suggest otherwise. You're not real, you're figments, the result of one of Fargo's experiments gone wrong.'_

The Master stood quietly off to one side as the Doctor tried to convince Nathan that this whole experience was real and Nathan would counter with "scientific" evidence on why it wasn't. But he could only take the whole "Is not" "Is too" back and forth for so long, and he couldn't help but wonder if any of his great-grandchildren received any genes from him because so far they were all displaying disturbingly Doctor-like qualities. Finally, his patience reached the end and in the middle of their bickering, he snuck behind Nathan and did the mental equivalent of hitting him hard on the head with a blunt object.

Once Nathan was completely unconscious, the Doctor and Master immediately withdrew from Nathan's mind. They blinked harshly against the artificial light in the infirmary. The Master quickly noticed that he and the Doctor were the only ones standing next to Nathan. Owen had gone to sit next to Caeli, he was holding her hand while his gaze shifted between Nathan and Caeli; the Sheriff stood near Livinia and Allison, his voice was barely audible as he argued with the two women about Nathan and Caeli leaving. The Master mumbled, "Stupid humans," under his breath before making his way over to Owen and Caeli.

"What the bloody hell just happened?" Owen asked, voice quiet so as not to disturb the three people arguing in the corner but no less demanding.

"Well, basically, we..."

Before the Doctor could get started on the rather lengthy explanation, the Master interrupted, "We'll explain later," at Owen's rebellious look which promised more questions, he continued, "seriously, the longer we stand around talking the worst it becomes for your sister." He didn't wait for a reply from either man, just placed his fingers on Caeli's temple and seconds later, the Doctor's fingers joined his and together they gently pushed their way into her mind.

The Master decided early on that Caeli's mind was harder to navigate, they were constantly bombarded with the thoughts of those around them and their own thoughts and unlike Nathan they couldn't sense Caeli anywhere. Where Nathan's mind was like a science lab, with computers, whiteboards filled with equations, and ongoing experiments scattered everywhere (though still in an organized fashion), Caeli's was nothingness, except for the thoughts of others that were floating around, like she shut everything down to protect herself.

_'Caeli?' _the Doctor called out like he did with Nathan.

The Master faced him, a look of disbelief on his face, _'Do you seriously think she'll be able to hear you over all this racket?'_

_ 'It was worth a shot,' _the Doctor responded, a despondent look on his face.

The Master looked around; they had been walking for a while now and didn't seem to have made any progress, the noise was almost deafening. He vaguely heard the Doctor call out again when he noticed something: a faint light was a short distance away to the left. _'Doctor,' _he reluctantly called, knowing he was about to get an I-told-you-so. The Doctor turned and when he saw the light smirked, but didn't say anything, though apparently he thought it because an instant later the thought was heard throughout Caeli's mind.

The Doctor looked sheepish for a moment, before his face became blank of all emotion except determination. _'Maybe we should put up stronger shields around our minds,' _the Doctor suggested before turning and walking toward the light, the Master following, and quickly catching up, with reluctant amusement on his face. As they got closer to the light, the nothingness around them faded into a library, shelves reached the ceiling with no room left on those shelves, and in the middle was a table full of notebooks. Behind the table, surrounded by books with torn out pages, was a little girl with black curly hair, hands clenched over her ears and eyes tightly shut, rocking slightly back in forth while sobbing.

The Master felt his heart soften a little at the sight; beside him the Doctor slowly approached her and crouched down when he got within three feet of her. _'Caeli,' _the Doctor softly said.

Startled, Caeli looked up, she stared at them in confusion for several seconds before recognition crossed her face, _'J-John, Sam? H-how? I didn't hear you. What's going on?'_

_'Caeli, there's something we have to tell you,'_ the Doctor softly said before he told her the truth about her heritage. The Master joined them seconds later, correcting the Doctor whenever he felt he needed to be corrected. Together they told Caeli the truth about her heritage; Caeli, for the most part, sat quietly, absorbing the information she was being told. When they told her their plan to make her better, it took the reassurances of both of them before she would allow them to knock her completely out. The library they were in slowly faded out of existence and within seconds the Doctor and Master found themselves once again in the infirmary in Eureka.

The first thing they noticed was silence, Caeli's mutterings had stopped when they "knocked" her unconscious and the humans were gone from the infirmary. Livinia and Owen were standing over a computer, whispering urgently back and forth, the Doctor and Master shared a look before heading over to them.

"What's happened?" the Doctor asked.

Owen sighed as Livinia entered a few more lines of code onto the computer before answering, "Gran had to kick Allison and the sheriff out, they were doing nothing but arguing, and is now erasing security footage for the last day or so. Do you want to explain what you did now?"

The Doctor and Master looked at each other, silently arguing (again) over who should be the one to explain. Before either could start talking, Livinia said, without looking up from her work, "Timelords and Lanteans had a whole range of psychic abilities which were hereditary...well...for Timelords they were, Lanteans had abilities that suited their personalities. Your necklace masks those abilities, remove them and you'd go into a sensory overload, like Nathan, Caeli, and to a lesser extent Shawn. Nathan and Caeli couldn't deal with it and their minds attempted to shut down but were unable to do so. What your great-grandfathers did was to effectively block out any outside influences by putting them into a healing coma." Livinia continued typing for a couple minutes before spinning around in her chair to face the three of them, "Security footage wiped, let's get Nathan and Caeli and get out of here."


	27. Chapter 26

~26~

TARDIS (still sitting in Eureka)-2008

Shawn sat on the flight chair in the bridge of the TARDIS, head tilted back, eyes closed. Around him the TARDIS hummed with excitement, it had been so long since there had been a multitude of Timelords walking her halls and she basked in their presence. Shawn shared in her excitement, and sure it was weird at first having a ship talking in his mind, but it distracted him from what was happening, to his siblings and himself. At least...it would if it weren't for his pacing, overprotective brother who was in hyper-military mode. John had been pacing since Gran, the Doctor, and Master (and just what were they supposed to call those two anyway?) left the TARDIS half an hour ago.

Shawn was able to ignore him for the first ten and a half minutes, but then the sound of his back and forth pacing on the metal grates started to annoy him. John's never ending pacing forced him to think about the events of the past couple days and at the moment all Shawn wanted to do was not think. It's not like he wasn't worried about Nathan and Caeli, just that the TARDIS assured him that they were in good hands, and he believed her even though they just met (and that was odd thought).

"John, don't be a girl scout," Shawn said good naturedly. (*Maybe "John, stop being a girl scout"?*)

"Shawn," John growled in response without stopping his current circuit around the room.

Shawn didn't let John's obvious grumpiness deter him, "No seriously, they're in good hands. Nathan and Caeli will be back to normal, or as normal as they ever are, in no time," Shawn paused, a plan forming in his head, "What we need is a distraction, something that will keep our minds off the fact that we can't do anything at the moment."

"And where do you suggest we find this distraction? Gran told us to stay here Shawn," John interrupted, finally stopping his pacing.

"Dude, we're in a spaceship, one that's bigger on the inside. Let's go exploring," seeing John's reluctance, Shawn added, "Gran didn't specify what she meant by here- here as in this room or here as in the ship. She just didn't want us to follow her and great-grandfathers one and two. And really, staying here," Shawn paused and glanced around the bridge while his fingers moved in a shape vaguely representing the room to emphasize the meaning, "until they get back, which could take hours, is going to drive you and me crazy, John."

John was still hesitant, but Shawn could see that his adventurous attitude (*spirit?*) was starting to take over. It was a slow and subtle process, one which Shawn and their other siblings were an expert in exploiting. It started like many things, with the eyes Shawn reflected, going from serious and worried to slightly mischievous. Next, a smirk would try to take over the scowl on John's face as he thought about what they could find and how they would go about finding it. His hands would unclench and his military posture would fade to a standing slouch.

The whole process could take anywhere from five minutes to an hour, depending on the situation. Shawn was hoping for the five minute time range but knew that because of the severity of what's happening an hour was more likely. _Thank God, _Shawn thought when after twenty-five minutes John said, "Fine, but we need something that'll let us know when they're back. And Shawn, you stay behind me the entire time; even safe places can be dangerous."

Shawn readily agreed and together they worked out an arrangement with the TARDIS, she'd let them know when the others back on board. They walked down the hallway in a companionable silence, looking into whatever rooms might be opened and staring forlornly (at least in Shawn's case) as those that the TARDIS refused to open. They were silent, each one thinking about the events of the last couple days, Shawn would glance towards John every time he noticed John's twitching fingers. Shawn thought back, realizing that John would twitch his fingers as if readying to fire a gun he didn't have every time they entered a new room. This new fact caused Shawn to notice other things: John always looking behind them as they walked and entering the room first, checking for unseen dangers.

Walking down the hallway, while deciding which door to try and open this time, Shawn's stomach let out a rumble. John turned to look at him, a smirk on his face and Shawn tried not to look too sheepish; it had been almost 24 hours since he had last eaten. He hadn't eaten prior to heading to the bank with Gus and then getting shot, breaking out of the hospital, and exploring an alien ship really didn't leave a lot of time for food. It appeared luck was on his side when the next door showed the kitchen, Shawn felt a satisfied hum in his head and knew the TARDIS had somehow made the kitchen appear.

Shawn sat at the kitchen table, his shoulder beginning to throb, John was rummaging through the fridge looking for something to eat. A question formed in Shawn's mind, one he knew John would hate. Stalling for time in order to delicately frame the question, Shawn said, "John, I have a question."

Without removing his head from the fridge, John answered, "42."

If what he wanted to talk about hadn't been so serious, Shawn might have chuckled at the Douglas Adams reference. John started getting out the fixings for sandwiches when Shawn replied, "I'm serious."

John snorted at that and continued making two sandwiches. Shawn was a little hurt by that, but didn't blame John for not taking his comment sincerely, he made it a habit not to be serious. Shawn didn't answer, instead he schooled his face to show how not-funny he was being.

As John turned around, two plates in hand, saw Shawn's face and sighed. He sat at the table and the face he made had Shawn fighting both a smile and a laugh. The expression John made was the same one he had when he knew he was about to be asked an awkward question and was mentally preparing himself. It was the face both he and Nathan made that one summer when Shawn and Owen, and Caeli many summers later, began asking questions about sex (the kind of questions neither would ask their fathers).

John was staring, making Shawn fidget under his gaze. After a couple more minutes of silence, John raised an eyebrow as if asking, "Well?"

Shawn knew how well his question was going to be received and swallowed past the lump in his throat before asking, "What about Mom?"

The effect of his words was instantaneous, John sat straighter, his eyes widened barely a fraction, and his expression became stony, almost as if John had detached his mind from his body. "What about her?" he returned, voice eerily calm.

Shawn cleared his throat, that lump just refused to go away, "When Nathan and Caeli are better and we know the whole truth, are we going to try and find Mom?"

"Why would we?" was the response in that same voice.

"'Why would we?'" Shawn repeated, "The question is 'Why wouldn't we?' She's our mom John. She deserves to know the truth. A-and what if what happened to Nathan and Caeli happens to her?" Shawn paused, he stared at his untouched sandwich considering his next words. Shawn didn't think he'd ever been so unsure in his life. "Besides, wouldn't it be nice to ask her why she left and where she's been?" he tried to sound upbeat, but what came out sounded timid. This was the question the little boy in him wanted to ask his whole life but had been too afraid of the answer to do so.

When John didn't answer after a few minutes (three minutes and twenty-three seconds, the TARDIS helpfully supplied), Shawn lifted his head; he didn't know what look was on his face, but as soon as they made eye contact, John got up out of his chair and began pacing the length of the kitchen. Shan knew that John was merely trying to collect his thoughts before answering but he couldn't help thinking, _God, this family can't deal with personal issues._

And it was true. Nathan would rather immerse himself in work than deal with people. John would often deflect the problem, get you so off topic that you'd forget what you were talking about. Shawn ran, it was as simple as that. Owen resorted to alcohol, sex, and fighting. Caeli would lock herself in her room, sometimes for days.

Shawn couldn't help but wonder if it was genetic. He knew he was like his mother when it came to running away, but unlike her, he came back. Even Gran had people issues, starting cooking or cleaning when things became too difficult so that she would be too busy to confront the issues. And from what little he knew about his great-grandfathers, he knew they acted like all of them (or was it that they acted like their great-grandfathers?). The funny thing was, people thought they were all people-people.

"Shawn?" John asked, drawing him away from his thoughts. When he saw that Shawn was paying attention, John sat back down, slumping down in the chair, elbows on the table, and Shawn steeled himself for John's answer, "We don't need her. We've never needed her. She left us behind, without a mother. But we have Gran and you have your stepmother. Mom," John said the word as if it was a curse. He took a pause as if gathering strength for what he was about to say, "Mom is nothing. And she knew. She knew about our heritage. Gran told her, told her everything. Mom didn't want us to know."

Shawn wanted to deny it, that their mom wouldn't have put them into a possibly dangerous situation. Before he could voice his doubts he felt it, the pull in the back of his mind and suddenly he was able to see. See Gran tell Mom the truth, see Gran try to teach her, and finally Mom demanding Gran to never tell them the truth.

The whole experience took less than 30 seconds. Afterwards, Shawn couldn't help but think, _Huh, that's pretty painless. Buffy and Supernatural make visions seem to be the most painful thing in the world._

Shawn saw John's questioning look and knew he had been silent for a while, John was expecting an answer. Unfortunately Shawn had no answer, all his childhood illusions were shattered, all it took was finding out the family secret his mom tried to keep hidden. He couldn't look at John, instead he focused on his uneaten sandwich. That's when the TARDIS sounded the alarm.


	28. Chapter 27

A/N: Sorry about the long wait, but here's Chapter 27. But Chapter 28 has been written, I just need to type it and give it to my beta for editing. Like always nothing but Gran, Caeli, Helen, and the idea belong to me.

~27~

Zero Room, inside TARDIS-2008

Nathan stood in front of a mirror, tie in hand. Looking down at the tie and then back at his reflection, he couldn't help but be confused. Wasn't he just somewhere else? Sunlight shone into the room, a light breeze brought the sounds of voices from outside as well as the smell of freshly bloomed flowers.

As he continued to stare at his reflection, he was able to discern that he was feeling a sort of nervous-excitement besides the confusion. It was the feeling he had while giving his dissertation defense or when he received his Nobel. Before he could continue his assessment of his situation, someone knocked on the door. "Come in," Nathan called with barely a second's hesitation.

John popped his head in, "Hey, you almost ready? We're supposed to be starting soon and we can't do that without you, can we?" he teased.

It felt like a punch to the stomach, all the air in his body was abruptly expelled.

With a sudden clarity, Nathan knew what was happening. Today was his wedding day...in a matter of minutes he was to be married. He didn't know what look was on his face, but whatever it was caused John to lose his teasing smile and replace it with a look of concern.

"Nayt'n?" he asked, using Nathan's old childhood nickname, "you're not getting cold feet are you?"

Nathan could only grunt in response, he didn't think he was getting cold feet. But then again, this whole day had a feeling of déjà vu to it.

John stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind him. "Sit down," he said as he pointed to the only chair in the room. Nathan followed John's instruction as he continued, "All right, Nathan. Gran told me something when I was about to get married to Nancy and I think it can be applied here as well..." Nathan couldn't help it, but he zoned out as John was speaking. He'd heard this speech before. He remembered sitting in this chair listening to John as he spoke about why getting married was a good thing and he didn't have anything to worry about as the girl of his dreams already said yes when he proposed.

A large part of his mind felt as if it were the first time this was happening, but the smaller, more insistent part kept pointing out the things that were odd. Nancy and John weren't married anymore, they hadn't been for years, and if anyone were to currently ask John about marriage, his response wouldn't be quite as upbeat as the one he's currently giving. That same part kept asking whom was he marrying.

"...besides, Kevin already likes you and that's half the battle, winning over the stepchild," John finished his rather inspirational, heart-felt speech. He looked expectantly at Nathan who could only plaster a fake smile on his face. John only nodded in understanding, "Yeah that speech didn't really work on me either. But it all boils down to this: you love her, right?" Nathan nodded. "You want to marry her, right?" another nod. "Then let's go get you married!"

Without another word, John crossed the room, grabbed Nathan's arm, and began pulling him towards the door. Within seconds Nathan was outside and at his place by the altar. This was all wrong, his mind kept screaming at him as he looked around at the people sitting in front of him.

And then the procession started, Caeli and Kevin entered first, flower girl and ring bearer respectively. As they walked down the aisle, Nathan noticed that they began to flicker, appearing older than their young ages. Memories assaulted Nathan as his sister and stepchild continued walking- Caeli getting into Cal Tech, nights spent reading to Kevin before bed, her mental breakdown, his contact with the Artifact. He missed Shawn and Owen walking in, but after the memories calmed down he immediately noticed Allison.

This was wrong, it was all wrong. He and Allison weren't married anymore, they were divorced when she realized he couldn't necessarily shut down and he wouldn't, no couldn't, give up his work. They were friends now, but the fights leading up to their separation still haunted him.

That was when he saw Gran, at least a version of her. This one, instead of watching in happy anticipation as her eldest grandson got married, wore a slight frown and appeared extremely concerned. They're eyes locked and immediately he was next to her and looking at a version of himself about to be married. "Gran," he inquisitively said.

"Nathan," she acknowledged. "How are you?" she asked worriedly.

Glancing back and forth between Gran and the other version of himself, Nathan answered, "Confused. Gran, what's going on?"

She didn't answer him immediately; instead her gaze and attention were focused on the wedding still happening in front of them. "How much do you remember, Nathan?" she asked without looking at him.

_Remember about what? _ He wanted to ask. Gran looked at him then, as if she had heard his thought. He stared at her, neither of their gazes straying from the other's. It was as if the answers to all their questions lay in the other's eyes. Gran raised an eyebrow when Nathan still hadn't responded to her question. At that look, memories started flowing through Nathan's head. His eyes widened as he remembered the problem in the lab, the explosion. The after effects, knowing things he shouldn't possibly be able to know, feeling emotions that weren't his. "Aliens," he whispered as he remembered the two men whom he saw in his mind claiming to be his great-grandfathers.

Gran said nothing, and the silence unnerved Nathan. To get some form of equilibrium back he did something usually reserved for his youngest siblings. Nathan Stark began to babble, "They said it was real, what I suddenly knew, what I could feel. And it's true isn't it? The experiment caused everything, it went critical, I got caught in the explosion and I suddenly have odd abilities. Stranger things have happened in Eureka. Only...no, that doesn't make sense. Room temperature superconductors wouldn't have done this. Which means I had these abilities before today..." Nathan's voice became softer toward the end as he worked out the implications of his discovery. _Gran knew all along, _he thought, _she knew the truth and never told me...told us. _Nathan stared at her in shock, with a hint of betrayal shining in his green eyes.

Gran wouldn't meet his eyes; she was still watching the wedding unfold around them. The silence from just a few minutes prior invaded once again. It was no less unnerving this time around and Nathan didn't think he'd be able to break the silence this time. He wasn't even sure he wanted to.

Thankfully, Gran allowed the silence to stretch on for only a few more seconds before she slowly began to explain, "I fell in love with someone I wasn't supposed to and when I ran away to Earth, I realized I was pregnant. Your mother was never supposed to have been born and then my daughter had five beautiful, brilliant, and rather reckless children. I had to protect you all.

"I created your necklaces to prevent others of my kind from finding you. But with all my knowledge and planning, I never thought of what would happen, what I would do, if any of you took off the necklaces. For that, I truly am sorry."

Gran paused for a second, looking Nathan in the eyes as if to make sure he was listening and believing what she was telling him. Apparently she saw what she was looking for because the explanation began again. Nathan recognized it as the lengthier version of what his great-grandfather—_the Doctor,_ part of his mind supplied—had tried to tell him earlier.

Parts of Nathan didn't want to believe what he was being told. He didn't want to think of Gran hiding something so important from them, of adding another betrayal to the ever growing list of disappointments which belonged to his mother. But Gran was speaking in such a matter-of-fact tone and she wouldn't lie, not about something like this.

The more she talked, the more Nathan believed and thought of the infinite possibilities opening up before him. All the experiments and ideas he had could happen. He had the time to make them become reality. They would, that is, if he ever got out of this memory. "Where are we?" he asked, interrupting Gran.

She looked back to the now wedding reception, at the happy newly married couple, at their family laughing and dancing and just having a wonderful time. She took a hard, long glance around the room before answering. "It's called a Zero Room," Gran told him, "it was where Timelords could come if their minds became overwhelmed. It prevents outside influences from causing harm. It's what is blocking you from feeling my emotions. Zero Rooms are also safe environments to practice and control mental abilities. And I'm sorry, Nathan, but you're not leaving until you have some measure of control."


	29. Chapter 28

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Real life has parked itself firmly in front of me (and my beta) leaving virtually no room for writing. Chapter 29 is almost halfway written and hopefully (*crosses fingers*) it will be up soon. As always nothing except Caeli, Livinia and the idea belong to me. Enjoy :)

~28~

TARDIS-2008

Owen paced the control room, unknowingly retracing John's path from two hours before. His thoughts echoed his brother's as well, alternating between worry over Nathan and Caeli and trying to make sense of the situation they found themselves in. But since Gran went into the Zero Room to help Nathan, Owen's worry for him had lessened. His worry for Caeli on the other hand, well...

"C'mon old girl," the Doctor's cajoling drew Owen away from his thoughts for a second.

The Zero Room wouldn't work with both Nathan and Caeli in it, apparently with two unstable minds the Zero Room couldn't function, at least that's Owen and older brothers were told. So Caeli was placed in one of the many bedrooms in the TARDIS. And when the great-grandfathers went to go help her, they found themselves stuck outside a shielded room.

This led to the situation Owen and the rest found themselves in- the Doctor trying to convince the TARDIS to release the shield and open the door, while the Master and John, if the thumps and thuds Owen heard were any indication, were trying (and failing) to break down the door. All this left Shawn and Owen with nothing to do.

Owen resisted the urge to punch something; the only thing stopping him was not knowing how the TARDIS, as a sentient ship, would react. So, instead he continued pacing.

Curses drifted in from down the hall and Owen felt like cursing himself. He was a doctor. Every bone in his body was screaming at him to do something, anything, to help. The fact that the would-be patients were his siblings made the fact that he couldn't do anything hurt. What was ailing Nathan and Caeli was all mental, sure Nathan had some cuts and bruises from the lab explosion but those had been dealt with in Eureka.

Owen was a doctor without anyone to doctor. As he passed Shawn on his next circuit, he paused. Shawn had been shot and then checked out of the hospital AMA. And now that he looked, Owen saw a faint expression of pain on his face.

As if sensing his stare, Shawn looked away from watching the Doctor's seemingly never-ending argument with his ship. Upon seeing Owen's look he started shaking his head while muttering, "No, no. Don't even think about it Owen."

Ignoring his older brother, Owen looked around for the bags he had hastily thrown into the TARDIS before leaving Eureka. Finding the med kit that he always traveled with, Owen quickly grabbed it before jogging back to Shawn.

"You can never be too prepared," he told Shawn when he saw his brother's raised eyebrow.

Shawn laughed, "What are you, a boy scout?"

"As if they'd let me in," was Owen's response as he began to check Shawn's wound. When he pulled back the bandages, he was amazed that despite happening less than two days ago, it was almost completely healed.

"It's all gonna work out in the end, you know," Shawn told him and whatever look he saw on Owen's face prompted him to add, "trust me."

Owen couldn't help the choked laugh that escaped, "You told me to trust you when you said that we were definitely getting a younger brother."

"Please, that was twenty-one years ago and looking at it logically, Mom already had four boys, what were the odds we'd end up with Caeli? Can't you come up with something more recent?" Shawn scoffed before wincing as Owen pushed particularly hard on the wound.

"Odds are still 50/50. And how about when you, and Nathan and John, said that Mom would eventually come back, that she always did? Or when you said you'd be at my graduation? From high school, university, and med school. And most recently, when you said that in no way were you going to assist Caeli in her ridiculous notion of making sci-fi gizmos a reality?"

Shawn's response was lost as shouts of triumph echoed down the hall. The Doctor looked about a step away from kissing his ship, he merely said, "Thank you, girl," before taking off towards the shouting.

Shawn and Owen barely shared a glance before following the Doctor. They arrived at the door just in time to see the door closing behind their great-grandfathers. John stood, arms crossed, on the opposite side of the hallway surrounded by the various tools and weaponry used to break the shield.

Looking between his two older brothers, who looked almost as lost as Owen felt, he asked, "So now what?"

They shared a glance before Shawn suggested, "Kitchen?"

John cracked a smile, "Kitchen works, considering we never finished those sandwiches and Owen, you have to be hungry. Besides, who knows how long all this is going to take."

As one they gave the bedroom door one last worried look before turning and heading to the kitchen.

End Note: What I know about the Zero Room comes from fics I've read and the little I've found about it on Wikipedia. But my idea of it is that it's really only meant to help one person at a time, if both Nathan and Caeli were to be in it at once then they could possibly be messed up more. Hope that clarifies a few things. :)


End file.
